I advocate usage of Minefactory Reloaded for farming. Yeah, it's not a 'cool' as a steves carts 2 tree farm, but it sure as hell is easier. For automation, you need two machines, with a third optional one. For semi-automation, aka "doing it on the cheap" you need only one machine.
The main device for farming in MFR is the Harvester. Takes either BC power or IC2 power, and if neither is present, runs off of ambient osmosis, absorbing background radiation from the world and running just fine without any input(aka doesn't need power). Can harvest pretty much anything you can plant in FTB Ultimate, though some trees are too tall for it by default. Yes, even netherwart. Or Corn. But I don't know about IC2 crops, so that's maybe one thing. Harvesting anything with the Harvester produces Sludge as a byproduct. Nasty stuff, but actually rather handy as you can use it to make some resources with a Sludge Boiler.
There are upgrades for many devices in the next version of MFR(they allow machines to work on a larger scale at the cost of being less efficient), and a critical bugfix in the version after that. Plus if you use the updated version of MFR there is a few great new toys, including single use Safari Nets, a Autospawner, a Safari Net Launcher, and the ability to fire safari nets from dispensers(assuming they are empty). Also some nice looking building materials.