Niche

Niche sets your yield and determines what pest problems you have. Niche is the place and role an organism has in its environment.

Farming and grazing are about providing niches for the species you want and removing niches that suit the species you don't want.

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Understand the concept of niche and you can provide it for your crops and remove it for your pests. In the process you will have fewer problems and more successes.

Graziers and farmers aim to provide good niches for the organisms they want (cattle, wheat, apples, sheep etc).

At the same time they want to make it difficult for any undesirables (weeds, insect pests, diseases, parasites etc) to find or establish their own niches.

This may involve filling a niche with a desirable species so that is not available for an undesirable species.

A niche is more than just the place where the organism fits physically. It is also the organism's function in the community of plants, animals and other organisms.

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Niche is set by
Habitat is similar to niche, but refers to place rather than function. So an organism's habitat might be The niche of that same organism in that same habitat is its status in relation to One way to get a better handle on niche is to think of it as like a person's place in their life, in their work and in society, there is
You may find two species in one spot but they will not stay in the same niche for long, they will generally need to exploit different things in that environment.

If they were competing in the same niche, one would get squeezed out by the other that had some slight advantage under those conditions. Perhaps one of them would not survive well enough to reproduce as successfully or its offspring would not establish as successfully in competition with the offspring of the other. For example As a result, the earthworm is at the mercy of anything that destroys or takes over its niche.

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Niche comes from the Latin word "nidus" meaning nest.
It also means a little nook in a wall where people put statues etc.
Many of the problems of modern agriculture come down to niche problems.
So, changing the niche conditions to suit the farmer instead of the pest will move the balance back towards profit.

If you have significant problems with pests, it is most likely that your management of niches is out of line with what you are trying to achieve.

Sometimes the easiest way to reduce the problem you're having with pests is to change the way you manage the niches you are providing.

Often this will involve only simple and easy changes. But, sometimes this requires a major shift in your farming, because your main crop and the way you manage it are providing ideal conditions for your biggest pest.

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If
Then

your crop and the way you manage it may be providing ideal conditions for your biggest pest.

And it is probably time to rethink how you approach your crops and your pests.



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Related info:

Beat pests by using advantage

Using SWOT to beat a major weed

Do weeds come to heal the soil?

Weed control without chemicals

SWOT analysis to boost profit

Learning from pests

Understanding the causes of weed problems

Weed control without chemicals

Ground cover

Choosing a farming course and teacher

Selective grazing

Allelopathy

Green manures in orchards and vineyards

Pasture legumes are special

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Summary
Niche is the role an organism has in an ecosystem such as a farm.

By changing the way you manage niche, you can reduce your problems with pests and make your farming easier and more effective.



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This page was updated on December 27, 2007