Converting to organic farming

Changing an agricultural operation over to certified organic doesn't happen overnight, said Bob Quinn of Big Sandy during a presentation at the New Idea Expo at Havre’s Atrium Mall April 8.

Quinn said that he had significantly more inquiries this spring about converting farms from chemically sustained to organic production. A large part of this interest is due to organic grains selling for up to four or five times the amount chemically produced grains sell, he said, but some producers were simply interested in getting away from the chemical farming practices as well.

When asked, he acknowledged that the attractively high price for organic grains would level out once supply meets demand, but, he said, this doesn't make organic less than a good idea — for several reasons.

The bulk of the U.S. supply of organic grains are imported from other countries, primarily European, he said, so the demand — and the price — will stay elevated until U.S. producers make up the difference between locally grown and imported.

"That money needs to go to our communities, our neighbors," he said.

Another good sign for producers is that the demand for organic foods is increasing in the U.S., he said, so even more production is needed to meet the demand.

But in the end, he said, he thinks producers who follow through with the change to organic will see the benefit for their land and production.

Organic certification can only come 36 months after the last application of chemicals, he said, but it can take five years or more to make the conversion because it should be done in increments, primarily because there will be a loss of income until the conversion is complete, especially the first two years.

He said, he converted about 2,000 acres of crop land to organic in three years, but from that experience recommends instead that each year about 20 percent of total farm acreage be converted to organic.

The first two years are the most costly, he said, because the acreage farmed organically won’t bring the premium price because it can’t be certified organic yet, and most likely, the soil is not built up enough to provide enough nutrients or to fight weeds, pests and diseases, so the yield will be less.

The third year, when 60 percent of cropland is in organic, is the crossover year, and the first 20 percent of land farmed organically will be able to be certified and sold as organic, he said. From that point, farming is a matter of learning how to read what the land needs.

The principles behind organic farming all lead to mimicking nature, he said.

Diversity

“Diversity begets stability it’s true in every aspect of society, business, everything,” Quinn said, because “… in a monoculture one thing can bring down the whole system.”

Chemical farming creates an artificial monoculture that requires more chemical input of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizer to maintain the stability, he said, but organic farming succeeds through a diversity of crops, like is found in nature.

A plot of uncultivated land contains a wide variety of plants to make the soil stable, utilize different nutrients, perform well in different weather conditions and fight different pests, he said. They often have a symbiotic relationship, with plants providing what their neighbors need.

Farmed crops create this diversity through rotation, which, he said, he tries to do on a nine-year rotation plan, generally alternating legume and grain crops.

Rotating crops breaks up disease, weed and pest cycles because every plant has its own particular resistances, needs and soil benefits, he said. For example, alfalfa fixes nitrogen in the soil while fighting weeds like thistle.

Soil Building

“Because we are taking something out of the soil every year with our harvest, if we didn’t put anything back, it would be mining, and mining only goes one way,” he said. “Mining is extractive.”

Soil building occurs with soil building crops. Though this can be done with organic manure, he said, it can also be done with green fallowing legume crops, which are plowed under about mid-June.

Composting leverages the value of the manure, breaks down carbon and nitrogen into a more usable state and adds an enormous amount of beneficial micro-organisms to the soil, he said, but without a ready source of manure, he does this by growing and green fallowing legume crops.

Beans, clover, peas and alfalfa fix nitrogen, and when plowed in for green fallowing add humus to the soil. He said he plants legumes every other year instead of summer fallowing. On years he is using the legumes as green fallow — rather than growing a hay or bean crop — he plows the crop before the end of the rainy season so the roots don't use up the soil moisture.

“In this country, and it doesn’t matter if you’re an organic farmer or chemical farmer,” he said, “the most limiting factor we have is moisture and rain, so we can’t use all the moisture stored in the soil for next year’s crop by growing a deep-rooted, vigorous crop the year before.”

The process of soil building, even with green fallowing, also builds up micro-organisms that make a healthier soil, he said, adding that even among chemical farmers, the practice of green fallowing, rather than chem-fallowing is catching on.

Montana State University’s Northern Agricultural Research Center, south of Havre, has ongoing studies on the effects of and best practices utilizing green fallow, or green manure, in conventional chemical farming.

Flexibility

While Quinn has his farm on a scheduled rotation that uses broad leaf, narrow leaf, deep rooted, shallow rooted, spring seeded, fall seeded, light feeder and heavy feeder plants, he said organic farmers have to remain flexible to succeed.

If a field is showing a thistle increase, then an extra year of alfalfa will fix that, and if soil tests show a field already has enough nitrogen then it is planted in peas rather than alfalfa.

“We try to farm in accordance to our fields and what they need,” he said. “We solve the problems that they have with other plants. So we use plants not only to produce cash crops but also to keep the whole system sound.”

But the flexibility is about more than just crop rotation, he said, the mindset has to be used when dealing with issues, because organic solutions generally take time — they aren’t just a matter of spraying a field and seeing results in hours.

Maybe its about using a protozoa to kill a grasshopper invasion with disease, or planting crops with narrowing spacing between rows and heavier seed planting to block out weeds, he said.

Organic farmers need to be more flexible with marketing, as well, looking for ways to sell and ship crops, he said, adding that the nice part about growing organic crops for which demand outweighs supply is that he generally has more than one buyer for each crop.

Organic farming has a lot to do with treating the earth better and creating a healthy, sustainable product, he said, but it’s also about the bottom dollar. It reduces input costs to one-quarter of chemical farming while increasing the value of the crop.

On his farm, he said, the yield in heavy rain years is about 33-40 percent less than chemically farmed fields, in an average rain year they are about the same, and in dry years, his yields are significantly better than from chemical fields — all while the value of yields are at least twice as much.

“If you’re losing money on every acre, you’re not going to make it up in volume,” he said.