Organic Broadcaster | Fall 2023 | Volume 31, Issue 4

4 Fall 2023

Bale Grazing Becoming a mentor Support Organic in the Farm Bill Increasing Bio-diversity on the Farm with food-grade Grains

In this issue 3 4 8 10 12 14 16

WHO WE ARE Marbleseed, formerly known as MOSES, is a nonprofit committed to supporting the Midwest’s organic and sustainable farmers through farmer-led events and educational resources that help your farm grow.

ORGANIC BROADCASTER CONTRIBUTORS Editor:

Alexandria Baker

Graphic Designer: Jo Facklam

Advertising Coordinator:

Jenica Caudill & Jo Facklam

Digital Content Producer: Jo Facklam

The Organic Broadcaster is a quarterly magazine published

by Marbleseed. Opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. Inclusion of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of a product.

Content may be reprinted with permission.

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Subscription: Manage your subscription by emailing info@marbleseed.org COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Hilgendorf Farms Welcome, MN

21 22 28 30 34 37 41 44 46

Letter from the Executive Director Feature: Bale Grazing The Queer Farmer Convergence Creates New Realities Policy Spotlight: Support Organic in the Farm Bill Remembering Dr. Paul Becoming a Mentor The Perfect Pairing that is Conservation Planning and Organic Management Marbleseed Content Blocks for the 35th Organic Conference Seasons of Change on a Diversified Farm Growing Together 2024 Convergence Vegetable Production: Simple Tests to Track Soil Health Fruit Production: Organic Currant and Gooseberry Production Grain Production: Increasing Biodiversity on the Farm with Food- grade Grains Inside Organics: Extracting Liquid Amendments from Bio-Rich Compost Keeping Vegetable Farmers Growing Through One-on-One Professional Peer Coaching Classifieds

Letter from the Executive Director

From The Executive Director Reflections On the Blue Supermoon.

I wonder as I write this column, casting my mind forward to the publication date of this Fall Organic Broadcaster, if you will remember the excitement and magic of the blue super moon of late August. I loved the child-like curiosity that it inspired, as I remembered lessons in physics, astronomy and back to elementary school science project models in Styrofoam globes and coat hangers replicating elliptical orbits and the timing of days, seasons and years.

I loved the idea that this perigee connected all of us across the globe in this every 13 years trifecta. There was magic in this instance of ‘perfect storm’. As a fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s writing and thinking about the world, he highlighted in his book OUTLIERS this notion that what we often perceive in people or circumstances to be rare exceptions or ‘outliers’ are not that at all.

Gladwell explains, these people or situations “appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience. But they don’t. They are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky--but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all.”

We will not see another see another super blue moon again until 2037. And we had not seen one since 2009. Like the outliers described above, this moon’s appearance is due to a combination of elements that taken together result in something that seems magical and unattainable. Two full moons in one month (blue), occurring when the moon is closest to Earth (super).

It made me wonder, where will we be as an organic community then? In the story arc of the certified organic label, within the current agricultural system, we are in an historic moment, our own ‘super blue moon’. Concern about climate change, combined with an unprecedented investment of funds, along with high consumer demand for organic products have put us on the precipice of opportunity. What of this moment is the product of history, community, hard work, and legacy? And whose story is told through these elements?

What do we gain when we see our current opportunities as a combination of these elements, when we acknowledge what brought us to this point, that may not be our legacy to claim? How do we build community in this moment and move forward together? How can we harness our collective advantages to bring the agricultural system into balance and justice?

As a legacy organization, Marbleseed is working toward answers to these questions. New funding is affording us the opportunity to build deeper programs to address conservation and climate, land access, organic transition, food systems to feed hungry communities, and expanded mentorship and role models.

We encourage you to become a mentor and farmer leader during this amazing time! The generosity with sharing knowledge that is foundational to success in organic management and land stewardship is so needed right now. Check our website and the National Organic Program website for more information on how to become involved.

We are putting the conference content together, relying on over 180 submitted proposals (wow!) and farmer feedback. Registration will open December 1st. New this year, Thursday and Saturday programming will offer intentional space for farmers to convene and lead meaningful conversations around wellness, climate, animal welfare, organics, and farm hacks that reduce reliance on debt and outside funding. Partners across allied organizations will help host these “Open Spaces” and offer their expertise and perspectives to our thinking and learning together.

Based on evaluations from last year, we are also providing more time to network and have those magical hallway and exhibit hall conversations. And there will be plenty to celebrate as we gather for our 35th year in the dead of winter with the promise of spring and waiting greenhouses back home on our farms.

Even less common than a blue moon, we are in the midst of a Farm Bill cycle. As I write this column, we are likely facing a continuing resolution for the 2018 bill as the House and Senate work to write the 2023 version. We would love to see some of these historic investments of the last year continue, in law, to benefit organic farmers, land, air, water, and hungry communities. Reach out or watch for opportunities to tell your farmer story of the impact of these new investments.

And we will see you in LaCrosse in 2024 for our 35th year. Let’s celebrate the positive in this perfect storm of “advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky” and be in community, humbled, and maybe at least a little outraged, ready to move forward as a movement united.

In gratitude and abundance,

Lori Stern 3 | Marbleseed.org

Feature: Bale Grazing

BALE GRAZING

By Aaron Pape As grass farmers, we live for the grazing season. Lush, stage two grasses and early blossom legumes fill our dreams. But as much as we revel in thigh high pastures, old man winter is never far away. Even in the height of summer, we are planning and preparing for winter bale grazing.

Bale grazing is a winter-feeding system where round bales are preplaced in advance of feeding, with livestock access controlled by using electrified polywire. We place our bales in grid layout. Having relatively straight rows helps with running the polywire, as sharp bends create points where the wire can bend or slip. Because the ground freezes, we Organic Broadcaster | 4

use fiberglass posts stuck into the face of the bales to hold up the polywire. We may pre-place pigtails at corners prior to the ground freezing, too. If we need to put a post in the ground after the ground has frozen, we use a 3/8” masonry bit in a cordless drill to make a pilot hole.

There seem to be two schools of thought regarding the spacing of the bale grid. Some folks will spread bales far apart, maybe 40-50 feet between bales. The rational is to spread the impact of the cattle over a larger area in hopes of eliminating the need for renovating the pasture. The other school of thought, and the one we ascribe to, is to pack the bales tightly, say 15 feet apart.

This concentrates the animal impact in a smaller area, therefore reducing the area that must be renovated.

We have tried the wide spacing strategy, but found the pasture still required full renovation. The damage done by the cattle isn’t walking between the bales, but rather right around the bales themselves.

There are three big benefits of using bale grazing for winter feeding. The first is the low labor and machinery requirements. Setting up the bale grid requires a tractor or skidloader to move the ales into position, but once the bales are set, there is no need for equipment for the rest of the winter. Using relatively lightweight plastic and fiberglass bale rings, feeders can be moved by hand. We typically dole out 2-3 days’ worth of bales at a time, so we are actually only feeding 2-3 times per week. Feeding consists of rolling the bale feeders to the next set of bales, moving the polywire from those bales and dropping the feed rings over the bales. I can usually perform this task in under 10 minutes. Be sure to provide enough bales at one time so that all the animals can access hay at once, otherwise the smaller animals will get pushed aside by bigger ones.

The second benefit is the elimination of bedding and manure handling. The cattle will “waste” some of the hay. The better-quality feed you provide, the less they will waste, but there is always some. This isn’t really waste though, as the cattle use it as bedding. I almost

Cattle will use waste hay as bedding. Photo Credit: Aaron Pape

never provide any other bedding to our herd. Because the cattle are out on the pasture all winter, there is no manure to clean, store, or spread. They are depositing the manure right out in the pasture where it belongs.

That lead me to the third benefit, which is the fertility management that bale grazing provides. We use bale grazing to strategically place nutrients and organic matter in the pastures that need it most. Throughout the summer, we are watching the grass and taking note of poor performing areas. The worst performing area of

Access to the next row of bales is controlled by polywire and fiberglass posts pushed into the bales. Photo Credit: Aaron Pape

pasture is the one that will be chosen for bale grazing that following winter. The concentration of manure in that area usually turns it from the least productive pasture to some of the most productive pasture following renovation.

We do pasture renovation over two seasons. The spring immediately following bale grazing, that area is chisel plowed, disced, and seeded to a mixture of sorghum-sudangrass, rape, oats, festulolium and red clover. The nitrogen hungry annuals are better able to utilize the heavy manure deposition, and their aggressive roots quickly rebuild soil structure damaged from the cattle compaction and subsequent tillage. We graze that annual mix 3 times in the summer. The sorghum-sudangrass, being a warm season grass, fills a nice niche for the typical slowdown of pasture growth in July and August.

The following spring, we very lightly till the soil and seed the area back down to our perennial pasture mixture.

By the end of the summer, that pasture is back in full production.

There are some important aspects to consider when setting up a bale grazing system. The most important consideration is the location. Is it a reasonable distance to a winter waterer? I have read that cattle can walk up to a 1/2 mile for water, but my personal comfort level is to limit the distance to a 1/4 mile. How is the drainage in the area?

5 | Marbleseed.org

You do not want water ponding in or flowing through the bale grid. Even if you don’t have concern for ponding or surface runoff, how muddy do you think it will get?

Prior to the ground freezing solid in fall and during spring melt, the ground can get very muddy around the bales and on the trail to their water source. In my opinion, this is the single biggest weakness of bale grazing. The cattle

Lightweight bale rings like these plastic and fiberglass feeders make moving bale rings by hand possible. Photo Credit: Aaron Pape

can turn the soil into absolute soup in the spring. The dryer the site, the less of an issue this will be.

Do the cattle have protection from the wind? Beef cattle and dairy heifers don’t need a roof over their heads, but they do need to be able to get out of the wind. If your site has thick fencerows or tree lines to hide behind, that should be sufficient. When I bale graze in pastures without adequate trees, I construct a makeshift windbreak out of t posts, pallets, and snow fence. I’ve seen others use chopper boxes, straw bales, and even purpose-built mobile windbreaks to get them out of the wind.

Bale grazing isn’t a panacea. As I’m fond of saying, everything in life has tradeoffs. I absolutely love the low labor and low equipment needs of bale grazing. It is one of the cheapest ways to feed livestock. However, the soil degradation and subsequent need for renovation is problematic. I don’t like having to tear up pasture and replant.

I justify it to myself, recognizing that it’s in the service of improving the pasture for years to come. We utilize only 5% of our pasture for bale grazing in a single year. That means it will take us 20 years to cover the entire farm. I think I can live with one renovation in 20 years.

Another tradeoff is that, because we cover only 5% of our acres annually with bale grazing, we are only covering 5% of the farm with manure. There are definitely times when it would be preferable to have manure to collect and spread manure strategically, especially some isolated or low areas where we can’t bale graze. However, to do so would require a winter-feeding area of some sort, such as a barnyard, and the equipment to handle Organic Broadcaster | 6

and spread manure. We don’t have any of those assets, and when we pencil out pouring concrete or buying a manure spreader, the numbers don’t add up. Particularly when you factor in the cost of the scraping and spreading, not just the capital cost of the infrastructure and equipment, it doesn’t make sense.

Bale grazing fits very well into two scenarios. One is in a startup, low capital system like ours. We came to bale grazing because it was the cheapest and easiest way to feed, especially since we didn’t have facilities or equipment to do much else. In this system we bale graze the entire non-grazing season, accepting the shoulder season mud problems as a side effect.

The other, more favorable, scenario is on a farm that already has facilities and equipment for managing manure. This farm could feed on concrete in the fall until the ground is frozen solid, and then turn the animals out into a bale grid. When spring melt starts to make pastures muddy, pull the animals off onto the concrete again and feed there until grazing season begins. In a typical 6-month Wisconsin winter, the farmer would likely be confined feeding for up to 2 months and bale grazing the other 4 months. This scenario combines the best of both worlds, as it limits feeding and manure handling labor for most of the winter, but limits soil pugging, and provides a couple months of stored manure to be spread strategically.

I feel bale grazing is an excellent, low-cost, low capital way to feed cattle. It isn’t perfect, but nothing is. It limits equipment needs to just a few days of setup in fall and requires only an hour or two of hand labor per week all winter. It works at any scale, too. We have bale grazed as few as 4 animals in a bull group, to over 100 cattle in one herd. Anyone with beef cattle, dairy heifers, and even sheep should consider using bale grazing to make their winter chores easier and less costly.

Aaron Pape and his family run Pape Family Pastures near Peshtigo, WI. They raise grass fed beef, pastured broilers, pastured pigs, and custom graze dairy heifers. He is also a Farm Business Instructor for Northeast Wi Technical College.

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The Queer Farmer Convergence Creates New Realities

The Queer Farmer Convergence Creates New Realities

By Bailey Lutz (they/them) I am a queer farmer – or silvopastoralist, goatherd, or simple goat lad depending on the day – who is coming into their calling to challenge relational paradigms. I am white, have claimed the pronouns “they/them” for nearly a decade now, and write in “anti-binary” when my gender is requested on various forms. I currently tend a herd of Kiko goats just outside of Decorah, Iowa.

When describing our work I typically keep it simple and call it “brush management” or choose to hint at something much greater with “ecological resilience.” I don’t believe in pursuing “restoration” knowing that conditions are rapidly transforming amidst climate chaos; what was can no longer be, and we have to pursue alternative, imaginative futures.

Organic Broadcaster | 8

As a wee one I had big dreams.

I first wanted to be Steve Irwin, then an “exotics” veterinarian, an investigative journalist impassioned by so-called post-colonial history, and then a conservation ecologist restoring the population of the endangered Amur tiger. The most important through line of all those potential careers is a focus on imagination and acting outside convention. I never dreamed of pursuing a career in agriculture, though, and mostly stumbled into it after being crushed by academia, and I’ve certainly deviated from more traditional agricultural paths as I’ve journeyed on.

The first few years of my farming career I deeply struggled to find community amongst the various agricultural circles I participated in. I increasingly felt a debilitating pressure to assimilate to the domineer-

ing cis-heteronormative, patriarchal hegemony if I were going to continue farming. My assimilation was embodied in aesthetics, one is taken more seriously if they present in certain ways; language, learning how to talk about making hay, for example, got me further than I could believe; and how I carried myself in many spaces. I abandoned a lot of myself so I could keep doing work I loved. My attempts to be accepted into communities felt incredibly isolating and alienating.

At a relatively critical moment, late into my first season operating my own farm business, I attended the second ever Queer Farmer Convergence at Humble Hands Harvest in Decorah, Iowa. It was a culture shock. I had never really, formally come out and didn’t really have queer community even when I lived in Minneapolis before I start-

ed farming, and my queerness was a known thing, but I didn’t know what it was like to be amongst so many truly incredible people doing things I’d never even imagined and they were boisterously queer. I felt like an outsider looking in on those who walked through their lives with joy, wonder, and the comforting support of community here and wherever home was for them. I was overwhelmed by the intensity of the euphoria everyone else seemed to feel and left early feeling lonelier than I had coming into the weekend. I kept attending, though, and have been an organizer for years now and each Convergence has felt more important than the last.

In retrospect, I was grieving something I had never known, and even more so was grieving something I might never know if I maintained the life I had formulated to, seemingly, more easily navigate the status quo. I also realized that the few days that make up the Convergence each year are not, in fact, representative of the day to day realities that everyone there actually lives.

depth, reliance that was not included in past ideas limited by dominant narratives and notions. By no means is a few days each year enough to grin and bear the status quo as we know it, but I part feeling renewed, curious, and inspired to keep working to make a dreamy weekend and all the imagination that comes with it a permanent, actualized reality.

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We craft an alternate reality together, truly. Trying to write a brief but representative list of all the identities, experiences, skills, beliefs, and more does not do justice to the beautifully incomprehensible vastness of people who create this ephemeral yet eternal world. Whether it be individually or collectively, we come into the weekend from across the country with all sorts of expectations and dreams, and we grow a place and time filled with workshops that enrich and are co-created, challenging conversations, unabashed glee, sharing talents that make us laugh and cry, visions of economies that are generative, food that nourishes soul as well as body, troubleshooting and commiseration. Existing relationships are strengthened, new bonds are formed, and genuine community is fostered.

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My path – professional and personal, entwined – has been radically changed by my experiences at the Queer Farmer Convergence and the relationships that have come out of them. I can envision abundance, diversity, 9 | Marbleseed.org

Policy Spotlight: Support Organic in the Farm Bill

Policy Spotlight:

Support Organic in the Farm Bill

By Lily Hawkins The Farm Bill is a HUGE package of legislation made up of many chapters, each with numerous sections and policy ideas. Marker bills are smaller bills that aren’t meant to pass on their own, but are introduced to promote and build support for a policy idea in the hopes that that idea will be included in a major omnibus package like the Farm Bill.

Marker bills help build grass-roots and congressional support for policies.

Several marker bills have already been introduced that, if included in the final text of the Farm Bill, will create and improve programs that are crucial to organic farmers. Other marker bills have been introduced that don’t address issues specific Organic Broadcaster | 10

to organic agriculture, but address issues like land access and consolidation to help build a better food system that supports specialty growers, small farmers, and historically disadvantaged growers.

move barriers to organic production in several important ways:

Organic Farmers Association has created a Farm Bill Marker Bill Tracker to make it easy to see and follow marker bills that advance organic priorities. You can also continue reading for more details on organic priority bills that have already been introduced.

Opportunities in Organic Act (S. 1582 and H. 3650)

Provide flexible funding for organizations to support organic transition, particularly for smaller scale producers, producers of color, and underserved regions; these organizations may provide a wide range of services, including culturally and regionally relevant assistance with the certification process and recordkeeping, inspector training, and mentorship programs

The Opportunities in Organic Act will build on USDA’s Organic Certification Cost Share Program and Organic Transition Initiative to re-

Flexible funding for organic operations to offset costs and reduce barriers associated with the transition process, ranging from learning new

Allow cost-share payments that cover 100% of certification costs, up to $1,500 per scope

farming and ranching techniques to business planning, equipment, and processing infrastructure Improve technical assistance available through public agencies, universities, and NGOs by providing resources for organic-relevant technical expertise, capacity, and partnerships at public institutions and organizations, including support for education, outreach, and market expansion, so producers in any part of the country will have access to professional assistance that will help them build healthy soil, manage pests naturally, and protect natural resources

Organic Research Bills Investing in organic research has significant benefits for all farmers, as well as for rural communities and ecosystems. Recently introduced in the Senate, the Organic Science and Research Act (OSRI) and its House companion the Strengthening Organic Agriculture Research Act (SOAR) will provide additional funding for several important organic research programs.

Lillian Hawkins is Policy Director of Organic Farmers Association. She ensures the policy priorities of certified organic farmers are represented in Washington, D.C. Raised in Pennsylvania farm country, she joined OFA in 2022 after three years as the Maryland Senior Organizer with Food & Water Watch.

Organic Farmers Association provides a strong and unified national voice for domestic certified organic producers.

With the purpose to build and support a farmer-led national organic farmer movement and national policy platform by: Developing and advocating policies that benefit organic farmers, strengthening and supporting the capacity of organic farmers and farm organizations, supporting collaboration and leadership among state, regional, and national organic farmer organizations, and welcoming support and cooperation with like-minded individuals and organizations.

Increase funding for the Organic Research and Extension Initiative. The bills would provide stair-stepped budget increases to the Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), from $60 million in 2024 to $100 million in 2028.

Provide Congressional authorization and direction for the Researching the Transition to Organic Program, currently known as the Organic Transition Research Program (ORG), with an authorization for appropriations of $10 million a year from 2024-2026 and $20 million from 2027-2028.

Increase funding for the Organic Production and Market Data Initiative (ODI) providing $10 million over the life of the Farm Bill, doubling the farm bill funding for this important USDA initiative. The data produced through the ODI aids in the development of risk management products and targeted market development.

Direct ERS to conduct a full, systematic evaluation of the economic impact organic agriculture has on rural and urban communities, taking into account economic, ecological, and social factors.

In addition to the marker bills that have already been introduced, OFA is participating in conversations that we hope will lead to the introduction of strong marker bills to support organic producers: • • •

Improve data collection, build a functioning safely net, and invest in regional infrastructure for organic dairy Ensure continuous improvement of the organic standards Urge your Members of Congress to support organic farmers in the Farm Bill

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Remembering Dr. Paul

Remembering Dr. Paul

By Dr. Sarah Slaby I remember the story that Doc would tell people that I was his fourth daughter. I’m getting choked up even thinking about all the great moments. Doc was like a father to me; he took me under his wing not only as a young girl who was raising calves, and he would give me breaks on the treatments and bills but also inspired me to want to be like him as a veterinarian. It happened to work out that I graduated from Vet school the year that he retired and to go on to work at Organic Valley.

It was such an honor to be able to shadow ato be a veterinarian and do work on the same clients that he had worked on. Now that he has passed it seems to be even more Organic Broadcaster | 12

of an honor that I had the opportunity to work alongside of him. At that time, he was very busy with Dr. Paul’s Lab making Herbal Tinctures products and Treatments and Vet Products for organic treatments.

He knew then that there was going to be an explosion in the future with his research in the industry, that would be immune therapy and essential oils. This is so true, with the immune therapies going to aid those with cancer treatments and antibiotic replacements. Essentials oils people thought you were crazy if you said you were treating with them and now you can find them on the shelf of Walmart. I thought researching essentials oils was easier due to the fact that researching immune therapies needed to be

done in a university setting. I started with essential oils and my first product was a mastitis treatment, Savvy Udder. Doctor Dettloff was the inspiration for this as he always said that essentials oils needed a lady’s touch.

He meant a lot to me every step of the way. If I had a business question, he would answer it. I had no plans of make a business out of the initial products, I just used them on the organic farms I would treat, but Doctor Dettloff would spread the word of the new mastitis treatment that worked so well, and he would take orders and ship them to clients. He encouraged me to get to Supreme Graphics to get personalized labels made. Pretty soon we

were selling it and from there he told me to make more products and so we did research on the best essential oils. If there was no Doc Dettloff then there never would have been Dr. Sarah’s Essentials. He was everyone’s best friends, humble and down-to-earth but yet so sault after. He was well known as a speaker and author; he spent many hours a day on the phone giving free advice to farmers around the country and world for Veterinarian advice. I had the privilege of having him share in the same community. It was such an honor to have him as my mentor and be treated like a fourth daughter. There was not a soul that he couldn’t talk to, and he could spin anyone’s day around for the better. There will never be another human being quite like Doc, but he would encourage him to keep doing great things in the work that he loved so much. I will always know Doctor Dettloff as a friend, mentor, father-figure, educator, someone who gave back to his community and the land that he loved so much. He was a founding figure in the world for sustainability and organic farming and treating the land as a precious commodity that it is. He loved people, animals, his family, and the land. Anything he put his mind into he gave his whole heart and that made him an amazing man for the love he gave, and the world is an emptier place now that he left it. His love will forever be missed by me and the world.

Sarah Slaby, DVM is a practicing large animal veterinarian.

She owns manages a sole proprietorship, Dr. Sarah Slaby Veterinary Service. Upon graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine with a dairy emphasis in the summer of 2003, she had the opportunity of taking over Dr. Dettloff’s practice when he retired as a field vet. Dr. Slaby resides in rural Arcadia, Wisconsin with her supportive husband Noah and beautiful daughters Kanah and Zionah, and wonderful son Jonah.

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Becoming a Mentor

Becoming a Mentor

By Carmen Fernholz For a good number of years now I have been involved in the mentoring program sponsored by Marbleseed. As a long time, organic farmer and now as a farmer much less engaged in the day-to-day decisions on the farm, I find it still very rewarding to serve in the role of mentor. This year again have a mentee whom I am totally enjoying working with.

A rewarding moment for me is just the fact that here is another person or couple wanting to start organic farming or wanting to transition an already existing farming operation.

One principle I have always lived by and try to convey to my mentees when it comes to organic farming is the necessity for having the correct attitude when approaching this Organic Broadcaster | 14

way of farming. Being successful at organic farming over the long haul depends almost entirely on attitude; on having the personal commitment and feeling that this approach to farming is the right thing to do.

This attitude means that there are really no other options in the mind of the farmer. This attitude includes overcoming the fear of weeds, being oblivious to peer pressure, and abandoning the idea that you can buy your production if you spend enough on equipment or other purchased inputs and make lots of money.

I say this because especially in the early years a transitioning organic farmer will be paying lots of “tuition” in the form of crop failures, weed management frustrations, the wrong equipment, or on many occasions, the lack of cooperation

from the weather. It is at times like this that it becomes quite tempting to throw up one’s hands and just say the heck with it. I call it the hassle factor. How much hassle can you tolerate?

But because we are paying the “tuition” we should also expect some rewards. Those rewards eventually appear in the form of less weeds, new or better equipment to achieve the expected end results, and the successful harvest of great crops with the knowledge that you were able to accomplish all of this because of your very own creative skills accumulated over hours, days, and seasons of trying.

One little side note I have come to learn early on and try to let mentees know is that learning and improving your skills as an organic famer never

ends. And the reason they never end is because you are continually striving to emulate nature even as you work to collaborate with the natural system in producing your crops or livestock. The new sources of information you seek out will continually open new doors and approaches to your farming operation.

Many of these new sources of information, however, come from the farmers themselves as they work each day on their farms and in their fields. Capturing these thoughts and ideas; that is, writing them down so as not to be forgotten is the key. So, one piece of advice I like to give the mentees is to always carry a notebook. Nowadays your cell phone can serve the same purpose. But capture the thought before it is forgotten.

The very essence of being a great mentor, however, lies in one’s skills at listening. Learning the deeper, perhaps less obvious reasons why the mentee has chosen to become an organic farmer is key to the success of your year long relationship with the mentee. Being a good listener also creates better opportunities for success being created for the mentee. Understanding why anyone would want to farm organic in this day and age of so much hands-off farming by way of chemicals, equipment, electronics, and expansive acres is critical, because organic farming is going against the mainstream of current agriculture thinking. It is not that many of these pieces of farming are inherently bad. The challenge lies in the farmer’s ability to maintain a close relationship with the land they are in charge of. We have all heard Wes Jackson speak about the eyes to acres ratio.

Successful organic farmers must hone this idea as one of their guiding principles.

One of the most effective ways of building this relationship with the land has to do with cultivating row crops.

Cultivating is a skill that can only be learned by doing.

It is a skill that anything less than the best will result in much less than satisfactory results. However, in the process of learning how to be a better cultivator operator the farmer creates the opportunity to go over and engage with nearly every square foot of their acreage.

Experiencing the variations in soil types; learning which weeds grow where; feeling the terrain change beneath the tractor. All these data points begin to come together and truly fulfill the eyes to acres appreciation.

Because harvest will perhaps be in full swing by the time you read this article, I would like to talk a little about harvest and post-harvest topics including maintaining grain conditions in storage, marketing strategy, reliable market information and forward contract options.

The obvious advice about harvesting is to have the harvest equipment in good condition including belts, chains and augers inspected and replaced if necessary. After all, you have spent all the money and time to raise the crop. Now don’t cut corners with equipment not being set and adjusted to do the very best at getting that crop out of the field. And most importantly, don’t get into the field too early. Make certain the crop is in fact ready to

be harvested. Immature crops are easily damaged and consequently market value can be lost very quickly.

Be ready to harvest soybeans at 15% moisture if you have storage with full floor aeration. You will save a significant amount of your yield plus you will have fewer cracked soybeans. If you have a good drying system, look to begin harvesting corn at something just over 20%. If you do not have access to drying, then consider leaving the corn in the field as long as you feel comfortable doing so. Any corn over 13% stored in a bin will need air flowing through it until the top of the bin is at 13% or the temperature of the corn is at or near freezing.

Once the grain is in the bin does not mean that you can walk away from it. All grain in storage should be checked at a minimum of once a month. Grain can go out of condition in a matter of days. The optimum environment for grain in storage is a steel bin with full floor aeration. Put the grain in the bin. Leave it set for 24 hours and then turn on the fans. Freshly harvested grain “sweats” and so running air through after 24 hours removes much of this moisture. Most corn and soybeans will storge well at 11 to 13 percent moisture.

The final step in gaining the most from all of your season-long work is marketing. But do not fall in love with your crop. Sell it. Find yourself a good reliable person to represent you in the market; someone who does not have an emotional attachment to the grain. Someone who can be objective with you in the price discovery process. Build a relationship with this person and use them as your representative in the market arena. Use this person to seek out reliable and credit worthy buyers. Talk to this person about forward contracting some of your grain to take advantage of markets well into the next marketing year. All of us may feel that we are our best marketers, but most marketing experts tell us that to market optimally it is necessary to commit a minimum of 20% of our time to marketing. This may be easy in the winter when the snow is flying. But what about the other six to eight months of the year when you are preoccupied with growing the crop? By working closely with a trusted marketing agent, you can spread your marketing year out just like you do with your farm work. Working with a trusted marketer, not a broker, is some of the best “Crop insurance” you can buy.

Carmen has been growing certified organic grain and forage crops at A-Frame Farm in western Minnesota since 1975 and has a wealth of knowledge on production, cover crops, and weed and fertility management. Carmen is involved with research at the University of Minnesota. He and his wife, Sally, were the 2005 Marbleseed Organic Farmers of the Year. Carmen is one of Marbleseed’s Organic Specialists.

15 | Marbleseed.org

The Perfect Pairing that is Conservation Planning and Organic Management

The Perfect Pairing that is Conservation Planning and Organic Management

By Tom Manley The USDA organic regulations plainly describe our obligations as producers to conserve the natural resource base on our farms. We are required, and I would like to think generally inclined, to maintain and improve, soil health, biodiversity, and water quality. Conservation is baked right into the organic cake.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is the federal agency tasked with delivering conservation solutions so agricultural producers can protect natural resources and accomplish exactly those objectives outlined in the organic standards. So why are the resources and support available through NRCS so underutilized on organic farms when they fit so neatly together, and how do we better connect these obvious allies?

It seems the USDA has been asking these questions and has invested in new practice standards and support targeted at organic and transitioning producers.

As a part of the multi-agency Organic Transition Initiative effort Organic Broadcaster | 16

to support the transition to certified organic production, NRCS has introduced a new interim practice standard and additional support for conservation planning on organic farms. The two primary instruments of the support are the new interim practice standard for Organic Management (ICPS 823) and the related but not new Conservation Plan Supporting Organic Transition (CPA 138). They can both be important elements in the long-term success of your operation, and especially valuable to transitioning operations as they develop an Organic System Plan (OSP) for their certifier.

Like organic farming, and a well-designed OSP, conservation planning is holistic in nature. As defined by NRCS, it is a nine-step process that is intended to be ongoing. A conservation plan is a living document, like an OSP, that is revisited, revised, and improved upon as we learn more and make process. It aims for continual improvement, just like the organic standards. There isn’t space here to do a deep dive into the planning process, and lots more

information can be found on the NRCS website, but I do want to talk about the benefits of the process for your farm.

Both CPA 138 and ICPS 823 involve comprehensive planning activities.

CPA 138 is just that, a thorough resource concern inventory and assessment, followed by a recommended set of practices and plan to address any and all resource concerns identified. What is special about this plan is that is developed as part of a producer’s intended transition to certified production and considers how the management of those resource concerns is impacted by the organic regulations, and how the organic production can incorporate and benefit from the recommended NRCS practices.

The producer guides this process throughout based on their objectives, values, labor resources and general understanding of their land and operation. The farmer and planner work together to formulate and evaluate opportunities to improve or protect resource conditions, and ultimately the producer decides on

practice implementation and how to move forward. This planning work is free to the producer and any planning work is non-binding and you are under no obligation to complete any recommended practices. If you choose to implement the plan in whole or part, you can work with your local NRCS field office to apply for funding support to do so.

ICPS 823 starts with a planning process very similar to the activity described above for CPA 138. Resource concerns are identified, objectives are discussed, and a plan developed. Because this is a practice standard, however, the intent is that the producer will implement the plan they create with the planner and receive direct financial assistance for doing so. It is a management practice that might include several practices and requires the producer to meet the criteria for those practices as well as the NOP organic regulations. If you apply for and are selected for funding through EQIP, you will have obligations to complete the work once you sign a contract and that contract is finalized with NRCS. Up to that point you can cancel an application at any time with no repercussions.

ICPS 823 can be implemented by transitioning producers or already certified operations that hope to improve conservation outcomes. This practice standard can be of great value to producers of every scale and includes payment scenarios tailored to both small and large farms and supporting practices for every type of organic production. Please see the sidebar article included here with information about some of those supporting practices of special interest for many organic producers.

It is important to reiterate that this support from NRCS is part of the larger Organic Transition Initiative, as is the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). TOPP provides support to transitioning farms in the form of technical assistance and direct mentorship. Marbleseed is a core regional partner in both TOPP and the related assistance from NRCS. NRCS staff planners and the Technical Service Providers they work with are our allies as we work to protect soil and water, mitigate climate change, and feed our communities. NRCS farm visits and planning work are free to the producer. Any planning work is non-binding, and you are under no obligation to complete any recommended practices. Why not reach out to your local field office and start a conversation? There simply has never been a better time for organic farms to purposefully integrate conservation into their operations, and to also see some financial assistance for the ecosystem services they are providing in the process. There is no reason to wait for a sign-up period announcement and the sooner you begin the planning process the better.

Your farm, like mine, will be better for it and we will all realize the benefits of good stewardship.

Please reach out to us if: You have questions about transitioning to organic production generally.

You are interested in technical assistance or mentorship through TOPP. You are an experienced organic farmer who is interested in being a mentor with TOPP. You have any questions about CPA 138 or ICPS 823 and how they can help your operation meet your conservation and production objectives.

You have organic and/or conservation experience and are interested in learning more about becoming a Technical Service Provider (TSP) working with organic producers to develop conservation plans, or you are a TSP who would like to add organic expertise.

There will be content related to organic transition, TOPP, and conservation support during each of the three days of the 35th Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference February 22-24, 2024. Look for more information in your Registration Guide coming soon!

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We asked Kaitlin Schott from the Wisconsin NRCS State Office about some practice standards that are often utilized on organic farms and can be part of the support now available through NRCS. Here is what she shared: If you’re familiar with one NRCS practice, it may well be “High Tunnel Systems,” NRCS Conservation Practice 325. High Tunnel Systems, or hoop houses, are simple structures over bare ground, without elaborate heating and cooling systems. They rely primarily on passive solar heating and passive ventilation. In this practice, a new manufactured kit at least 6 feet in height at the peak is constructed on an area with a slope of less than 5%. This practice does not include greenhouses and shall not be used to provide shelter or housing for any livestock, or to store supplies or equipment. This practice does not apply to crops grown in non-natural soil profiles such as tables/benches, portable pots, and hydroponically, though raised beds may be installed within a High Tunnel System. Organic producers shall make sure that all permissible activities, design, material used, and material specifications are consistent with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service National Organic Program, National Standards on Organic Agricultural Production and Handling.

NRCS Interim Conservation Practice 821 is “Low Tunnel Systems.” You may know them as row covers, floating row covers, shade cloth or insect netting. The formal definition of this practice is, “An enclosed polyethylene, polycarbonate, plastic, or fabric covered structure that is used to cover and protect crops from sun, wind, excessive rainfall, or cold, and to extend the growing season or to reduce pest pressure.” In contrast to the High Tunnel System, the Low Tunnel System must be 4 feet tall or lower. Tunnels may be established prior to planting or over already established crops and can cover one or more rows of crops or even individual plants. There are multiple materials that are options for Low Tunnel Systems including insect netting, polyethylene covers (minimum 4 mil greenhouse grade material), and shade cloth in place of or in addition to other covers. A second layer of row cover or a heavier weight row cover or cover blanket can be used to provide greater protection in colder temperatures. Floating row covers without support may be used. In the event that systems are supported, the frames or hoops may be constructed of metal, 9 to 10-gauge wire, electrical conduit, or durable plastic such as polyvinylchloride (PVC) tubing. Organic producers must ensure their entire Low Tunnel System is National Organic Program compliant.

Another new NRCS interim Conservation Practice Standard 812 is “Raised Beds.” Raised Beds may be planned in situations where existing on-site soil is contaminated by heavy metal or other contaminants, debris or obstructions on site prevent crop production, or other soil conditions make the planned practice site unsuitable.

Work with your local NRCS office to determine eligiOrganic Broadcaster | 18

bility. This practice can be implemented where soil will need to be imported to the practice site; not simply creating raised beds from soil already on the site. Raised bed heights can be 6-24 inches above the in-situ soil depending on site and desired crop needs. Beds may be framed or unframed and created in any shape desired.

If framed, materials that may be used include untreated, rot resistant lumber such as cedar, white oak, locust, etc. as well as metal or plastic framing materials that will meet a 5-year lifespan. Tires or chemically treated lumber are not approved as framing materials. If soil contamination above UW recommendation levels is present, a 4oz. heavy duty non-woven landscape fabric is to be placed between the in-situ soil and the new growing substrate to reduce the exposure of plant roots to contaminants. Organic producers must ensure their entire Raised Beds system is National Organic Program compliant.

All three practices discussed above (and others!) can be planned on the same footprint and are contracted on a square foot practice unit basis. If warranted, Raised Beds could be constructed, Low Tunnel Systems used on the beds, and that could all be within a High Tunnel System! This could also potentially be combined with other NRCS practices such as Cover Crop, Irrigation System, Micro irrigation, and/or Mulching.

Tom Manley is the Climate and Conservation Director at Marbleseed and an Organic Conservation Specialist working with Wisconsin NRCS. He raises beef cattle in a managed grass-based system on the farm he operates with his wife in the Rush River watershed near Spring Valley. He can be reached at Thomas.Manley@marbleseed.org or Thomas.

Manley@usda.gov Kaitlin Muir Schott (she/her/ella) is the Urban Agriculture & Specialty Crops Conservationist with Wisconsin NRCS and is a specialist in the practices she describes here. If you have questions about these standards, please contact your local NRCS field office and they can help you explore how they might fit into your operation.

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Marbleseed Content Blocks for the 35th Organic Farming Conference

By Justine Bursoni We listened to your survey input, and we have adjusted a few ways in which we present educational content at the 2024 Organic Farming Conference. There will be five different types of content delivery: Organic University (OU): Our OU programming is highly interactive.

For example, sessions may include hands-on exercises, demonstrations, panels, interactive workshops, and process and planning activities.

If you’re feeling the calling to have participatory learning activities, these sessions will fit your needs.

Farmer Summit, Convergence, Open Space: Last year, we introduced Convergence/Open Space as an exploratory method to engage both small and large groups of participants in self-driven discussions to dig deeper into specific questions or issues raised from our Organic University sessions. Participants

will begin by offering questions in areas to explore. We will harvest these ideas and issues throughout the session and ideally, all who attend will walk away with energy to connect, creating the opportunity to turn ideas into action. Thursday’s content will have five concurrent Farmer Summits on the topics of Wellness, Organic Certification, Farm Hacks, Livestock, and Climate and Conservation (CSAF). Each of these Summits will be facilitated like last year’s Convergence, utilizing the Open Space Technology.

Workshops: One of our more traditional formats, a workshop will be an extended way to receive outside expertise to showcase recent knowledge in the field.

Round Tables: Unlike a one-way presentation, roundtables are opened by an experienced facilitator who introduces an idea to be discussed and keeps the conversation focused and moving among the

participants. As always, differences of opinion are to be expected and respected.

Presentations/Panels: Traditional lecture-style sessions consist of a timed presentation or panel followed by a short Q&A session.

We will offer a wide assortment of workshop topics from: business, marketing & certification; climate, soils + systems; field crops; health, policy & community; livestock and dairy; and finally, marketing farming & fruits/specialty crops.

Justine Bursoni is Marbleseed’s Farmer Education Manager. Justine completed her B.A. in art history and gender + women’s studies from The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2004 and went on to receive an M.A. in art education with a teaching certification and ESL endorsement from the same institution in 2010. She lives in Champaign with her partner and two children.

21 | Marbleseed.org

Photo Credit: Justine Bursoni

Marbleseed Content Blocks for the 35th Organic Conference

Seasons of Change on a Diversified Farm

Seasons of Change on a Diversified Farm

By Halee Wepking Our farm mentor and partner, Paul Bickford, passed away in late August of 2022. In the immediate days after the accident, neighbors helped make hay, and our parents, our friends and family (and some total strangers) brought meals for us and the farm crew, and Paul’s siblings Bev and Jim, who we knew but weren’t close with at the time, jumped into action. We had to navigate buckwheat, corn, and bean harvest without Paul, not to mention the daily tasks of farm management and the weight of our grief. The plan was for Paul to slow down and eventually retire in a few years, but instead, we were on our own in an instant. When we finished combining wheat this year, we had survived a whole cycle without him.

Recently, when we took some folks on a tour of our farm, I spent a lot of time talking about Paul’s legacy, his resilience, and openness to change.

Without him, we wouldn’t be farming and milling in the way that we are. He is still very much with us.

As beginning farmers, John and I learned from Paul to always keep an Organic Broadcaster | 22

open mind and be willing to think critically about our practices. The farm was never a static entity. Like us, it was not his ancestral family farm, though he purchased it and built a 300 cow freestall dairy there with the help of his parents, Melvin and Loretta in the late 70s. In the early nineties he pivoted, building a New Zealand style open air parlor on the top of a hill, and for close to twenty years, ran one of the largest grazing dairy farms in the region, milking hundreds of cows on pasture. In 2012, he sold the cows after a prolonged legal struggle with the local power company over stray voltage, and converted the farm to organic grains and forages.

We came to work with Paul in 2015, a few years after he had transitioned to organic crops and enjoyed high commodity prices. When we drove around the farm with him during our first “interview” he said, “I expect you to tell me what I can be doing better. I want you to bring your ideas.” And he meant it. Looking back on it now, Paul was looking for mentees, but he was also looking for engaged management partners that would help him make increasingly

complicated and multifaceted decisions. For Paul, 2015 was around the time when organic farming started to become more difficult. Plowing up pastures and planting organic corn, beans, and raising dairy hay in a time of high prices was profitable for a few years, but by that time, perennial weeds were gaining a foothold in the miles and miles of field edges we have with our contour layouts, and the weed seed bank was beginning to be replenished in earnest after years of herbicides and pastures.

Our job now is to maintain and hopefully improve the high organic matter soils we’ve inherited (a benefit from the decades Paul grazed his dairy cattle on these ridgetop fields), as well as improve the farm’s overall profitability, so that we can fund necessary equipment and infrastructure improvements, create systems to make the farm a more reasonable place to work for our farm and mill crews, and so that when we retire we can pay it forward, in the same way Paul did for us, to the next generation of stewards of this land.

Since joining Bickford Farms we have expanded the crop rotation to include culinary crops like wheat, rye, spelt, buckwheat, edible dry beans, and open pollinated corn, and we still grow oats, forages and row crops like corn and soybeans. We also have built an on-farm flour mill, Meadowlark Community Mill, on the literal foundation of what was once Paul’s freestall barn and milking parlor. Having started as a conventional dairy farmer, transitioning to grass-based dairy, and then to organic row crop production, Paul was unique in his willingness to change, as well in his commitment to keep farming.

He passed on his wisdom one morning as we stood in our nearly completed mill and said something along the lines of, “Today it might be a flour mill, but who knows what it’ll be in twenty years.” While that might sound a little deflating, it really showed his humility. We can’t hold on too tight to an idea or an image, we have to be paying attention and be willing to adapt when the time comes.

The land we farm is close to a thousand acres around Ridgeway, in the Driftless region of Southwest Wisconsin, full of ridgetop fields and contour strips, with an average field size of five to seven acres. All of our fields are “highly erodible” and we do our best to farm with reduced tillage and continuous cover, and we rely heavily on the diversity of our crop rotation to sustain us.

A snapshot of our rotation looks something like this: buckwheat planted mid-summer and harvested in September; winter wheat is then planted into the buckwheat stubble, with a red clover frost seeding in the following spring; the red clover will thrive after wheat harvest, overwinter, and then be tilled under and planted to open pollinated or hybrid varieties of food grade corn; avoiding late fall tillage we will leave the corn stubble and in early spring plant a succotash of oats, peas, and barley, followed by a late summer, legume-heavy cover crop; the following year we’ll plant spring cereals, followed by a rye cover crop after harvest; ideally we’ll roll-crimp the rye and no-till plant beans; we’ll leave the rye thatch in place over winter and through early spring before planting buckwheat, which can handle the debris well and helps to mellow the soil before planting winter wheat again. Somewhere in there we plant intercropped fields of dry beans and popcorn, and experiment with new or old cultivars like Einkorn, KernzaⓇ, and cowpeas.

And we always keep plan B, C, D, and beyond in our pockets.

We anticipated the challenges we’d face this season as it was our first without Paul, but we didn’t foresee the timing (more than the severity) of the drought we’ve experienced this year. After a wetter than average early spring, it stopped raining entirely in early May and we found ourselves confronting extreme drought in late June. Corn was planted into dust, and sat for nearly 6 weeks before germinating in some parts of fields. We had to pivot and let 100 acres of rye set seed instead of our original plan to roll-crimp it and plant soybeans. Then we had to find

a market for that extra grain in order to have space to store our buckwheat when the time comes.

But of the crops we planted this year, our open pollinated corn suffered the most. One day John came home looking pretty defeated. I asked what was bothering him, and he said that he had just finished tilling under a pitiful stand of our open pollinated yellow flint corn. We have planted that particular variety almost every season since moving to Wisconsin in 2014. Our first crop we harvested by hand, and I was wearing our month’s old baby while we filled bags with ears that John threw into the back of his parents’ pickup truck. It is understandable that his heart would be heavy watching that field struggle, and then having to terminate it in the end.

There have been many moments this season when the chance of rain has dwindled, or it rained at exactly the wrong time, when we had hoped to be harvesting wheat.

The pastures have been slow to recover after grazing our herd of cattle, and our second crop hay amounted to nine bales off of 35 acres. We expect to create 50% less forage over the season. We had to terminate 40 acres of corn that were then planted to a cover crop, and we’re relying on crop insurance to help cover the loss.

Somehow in spite of the rains we caught at small grain harvest, we combined nearly 500 acres of high quality small grains by early August. Because of our flour mill and grain business, our farm would suffer a tougher loss with a small grain crop failure than corn or beans. It was excruciating, needing rain so badly, and then having to park the combine undercover and listen to the rain pummel the dry ground. If wheat stays wet in the field once it reaches maturity, the seed will start to germinate.

This has a negative effect on the grain’s baking quality, and we were nervous that we’d have bins full of wheat that wouldn’t be worth milling.

There have also been timely rains that impacted the viability of hundreds of acres, like our fields of buckwheat. It was a relief to be able to plant and watch the plants take off, but with so little rain beforehand we had difficulty tilling ground and establishing good seed beds, which delayed planting and will push back the timing of getting our winter wheat in the ground. The fields are certainly not the best we’ve had, but it feels like a tiny miracle that they have been thriving, flowering, and buzzing with pollinators. This also meant we were able to maintain our relationships with beekeepers who have brought their hives to our farm during buckwheat flowering every year.

Paul once said “you get to be new for a year, then you’ve done everything once and you don’t get to make as many mistakes.” He was talking about farm accounting, specifically, but I think about that now as we start buckwheat harvest the second time without him. This year we’ve bought a different combine that is better suited for the crop, which Paul’s brother Jim has made sure is in good shape to handle the job. We’ve made other changes to our operation over the year, too, adding new em23 | Marbleseed.org

ployees to our team, purchasing new (to us) equipment, narrowing our focus and leaning on our community a little harder. Hopefully the second time through we’ll make fewer, or at least different, mistakes.

Over the years we’ve realized some truths about farming with an extended, 6+ year rotation: Diversity helps break disease, pest, and weed seed production cycles. Diversity allows you to farm more acres with smaller equipment, since fewer acres are in any given crop. Tillage, planting, cultivating, harvesting, cover cropping happen at different times in the year for each crop, in theory allowing for a more reasonable workload.

But with cropping activities spread out more evenly throughout the growing season, there aren’t many clear times to pause and relax mid-season, which we’re learning is a difficult balancing act, and is motivation to throw more midsummer backyard bbqs for our team, go to baseball games, and get together for small celebrations throughout the year.

We always say that farming with diversity ensures that at least one crop is thriving at a given time - this year our wheat benefited from the dry growing season, while many other crops struggled. But the motivation goes beyond just a single year. We are committed to increasing our level of diversity for the long term health of our soil, water quality, and farm ecosystem, for the next generation of operators who will someday manage this land.

Organic Broadcaster | 24

In 2015 Halee and her husband John partnered with Paul Bickford on his organic farm in Ridgeway, and now manage the 1,000 acre farm raising culinary small grains, buckwheat, edible dry beans, and open pollinated corn, as well as feed and forage crops. In 2021 John and Halee launched Meadowlark Community Mill, an on-farm flour mill committed to sourcing grain from regional organic farmers and producing high-quality stone ground flour and other staple food crops. In addition to managing two businesses, Halee and John have three kids, Henry, Lyda, and Mathilde, a grass-fed beef herd, and a backyard flock of chickens, ducks, and geese, just to make sure they keep busy.

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Growing Together 2024 Convergence

Growing Together

Photo Credit: Justine Bursoni

2024 Convergence

By Alex Bagwajinini Kmett Last year, Marbleseed hosted the Farm Viability Convergence at the 34th Annual Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, WI. Embracing the success of this event and integrating feedback to improve and expand upon it, we are excited to announce that the Convergence will return in 2024! There are some changes to expect in 2024, as sessions will be spread across three days, coalescing together on the last day for a grand exchange of ideas.

We will begin the conference on Thursday with five concurrent Farmer Summits on the topics of Wellness, Organic Certification, Farm Hacks, Livestock, and Climate and Conservation (CSAF). Each of these Summits will be facilitated like last year’s Convergence, utilizing the Open Space Technology method. This method allows for any attendee to convene a discussion on a subject that matters to them, and the freedom to move about from discussion to discussion, providing a space for our community to grow together organically at the grassroots level.

Organic Broadcaster | 28

On Friday, there will be opportunities to continue these discussions over lunch in a format we are calling the Farmer Café.

This format draws loosely from a method called World Café and will allow attendees to visit with one another at tables that are sectioned off by topic, with the intent of continuing conversations or starting new ones around the themes introduced at the previous day’s Farmer Summits. Papercovered tables and ample markers will be provided for attendees to make notes and drawings on the discussions held, which will be photographed for the 2024 Convergence’s Book of Proceedings.

Finally, on Saturday, the rhizomic conversation threads that grew throughout the previous two days will come together at the Convergence’s finale event. This will be facilitated using the same Open Space method as the Farmer Summits on Thursday, but on a grander scale, inviting all to convene discussions as we further develop and share ideas together as a diverse community. Together, our experiences and perspectives have the power to influence positive

changes throughout various facets of the agricultural sector, from the grassroots to the grasstops. This event will serve as an opportunity to grow together and learn from one another as a community of farmers, academics, collectives, business owners, and policymakers.

We look forward to you joining us in February! Stay tuned for the release of the 2023 Farm Viability Convergence’s Book of Proceedings.

Alex is Marbleseed’s Farmer Education Specialist. Holding a Master of Arts in Indigenous Education from Arizona State University, Alex (Red Lake Ojibwe) brings extensive experience in higher education, community-based language programs, and program development. He is a co-founder and the Curriculum Developer at EndazhiNitaawiging Charter School, based in the Red Lake Nation; and is a cofounding parent of the Gookonaanig Endaawaad language nest, based in Fond du Lac reservation. He resides at Bapashkominitigong with his partner Erika Resendiz and their children, and is involved with harvesting wild rice, various wild plants, and farming vegetables at Gitigaaning.

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Vegetable Production: Simple Tests to Track Soil Health

Simple Tests to Track Soil HEalth

By Rue Genger Soil might just be the most complex and variable environment on our planet. The characteristics of any soil emerge from the interactions of its variable components: its mineral constituents, organic matter in various stages of breakdown, and the multitude of organisms that inhabit it - fungi, bacteria, protozoans, nematodes, earthworms, insects and other arthropods, and more.

There is no single definition of soil health, but many tests can be used as indicators of soil health. The tests described here - water infiltration, slaking, and compaction - are all tests of soil function related to its ability to absorb and retain water, and to support healthy plant growth.

Soil health is hugely affected by agricultural practices, especially by tillage. For all these tests, it’s useful to compare field areas to undisturbed areas like fencerows, which offer insight into your soil’s optimum condition.

Slake test The slake test demonstrates how well your soil’s aggregates hold together in water, and is an indicator of its ability to soak up rainfall and resist erosion. Biological processes such as earthworm activity, root growth and decomposition, networks of root-associated fungal hyphae, and sticky exudates from other soil organisms including fungi and bacteria all contribute to soil aggregation and the stability of large “macropores.” When a chunk of topsoil is placed into water for the slake test, the water is drawn into the soil, displacing air. If the large pores within the soil are stable, water can move into the soil without causing the aggregate to break apart, Organic Broadcaster | 30

or “slake”. Stable macropores allow better infiltration of water into the soil, reducing water runoff, erosion and surface crusting. In addition to letting surface water drain quickly, well-aggregated soil retains plant-available water in large and small pores - buffering against both drought and flood.

Tillage has a major impact on soil quality, physically disrupting soil and causing decomposition of organic matter. Over time, tillage reduces soil biological activity and thus the ability of soil organisms to stabilize soil aggregates. It’s helpful to compare soil aggregates from a production field with a nearby untilled area such as a fencerow, to see your soil’s potential for aggregation in ideal conditions.

To do the slake test, you will need: • • •

two clear glass or plastic containers mesh supports (eg sink strainers or hardware cloth) that will fit into the top of the container and hold the soil in the top half of the container soil aggregates collected from the surface layer of soil, from a tilled area and from a nearby untilled area such as a fencerow

Insert the wire meshes into each jar and fill the jars with water to a depth that will submerge the soil aggregate samples. Simultaneously place each soil aggregate sample into the separate jars. Watch to see which soil holds together and which one falls apart. Aggregates from soil with poor structure will break apart in water.

Soil that has good structure and is not compacted will have pores of different sizes throughout it - micropores

between mineral particles and humus, and macropores formed by roots, earthworms, and other soil organisms.

These pores contain air and water, and allow water to drain through soil. Look for air bubbles escaping when you first place the soil aggregate in water. If no air bubbles emerge and the aggregate holds together, the soil may be compacted, a warning sign for potential problems with water drainage and root growth. This is more likely for heavy clay soils.

•

I recommend searching YouTube for “soil slake test” to find some excellent demonstrations. Here’s a good example to get started (“Slake and Infiltration Test by Ray for ENHS 766 Class” - bonus rainfall infiltration simulation at the end).

Find a relatively flat area of your field, and remove any debris. If plants are present, clip at the soil surface to avoid disturbing the soil, and remove. Place the metal pipe on the cleared area with the wooden block across it.

Use the mallet to pound the pipe 3 inches into the soil, as evenly as possible to avoid opening cracks at the edge of the pipe. If gaps open, gently press the soil against the inside of the pipe to seal them. Place the plastic wrap over the pipe, and pour in 442 ml (about 15 fl oz) of distilled water - equivalent to an inch of rainfall. Remove the wrap and start the timer. Record the time taken for the water to soak into the soil.

Testing soil compaction Soil can be compacted by traffic and tillage, especially in wet conditions and on heavy soils. Foot traffic through the season can pound down the topsoil layer, while tillage can cause a “plow pan” just below the depth of the tillage implement. Soil compaction restricts root growth due to lower oxygen levels and the physical resistance of the soil, and water drains more slowly through compacted soils.

A soil compaction tester, also called a soil penetrometer, is useful to find field areas with compacted soil, and to map the depth of compaction layers such as plow pans. This tool is a metal rod around 2 feet long, with a cone-shaped end, a T-handle, and a pressure gauge. As you push the rod down into the soil, the gauge shows the pressure exerted. Color-coded pressure ranges show when compaction is at levels that would be expected to restrict root growth. To get a baseline for your soil, check a fencerow or other area that doesn’t get traffic or tillage.

Soil moisture makes a difference - it’s harder to push the tester into dry soil. Soil texture also makes a difference, so if you’re using a soil compaction tester to compare the effects of different management practices, make sure you’re comparing within similar soil types.

Soil compaction testers can be purchased online. Soil probes - simple T-shaped rods - are more economical alternatives where your muscles are the only pressure gauge! Whatever you choose, this is a helpful tool to help you diagnose soil compaction problems. This video goes through some options with demonstrations and tips (“Tools for Measuring Soil Compaction”).

• • • • • •

A 2x4 wooden block that will span the pipe (at least 7 inches) A mallet Shears or scissors Distilled water Measuring jug marked at 442 ml (around 15 fluid ounces) Plastic wrap Timer

If the soil is very dry, you may want to repeat with a second inch of water. As for the other tests, you can compare infiltration rate between a production field and a nearby fencerow, to gauge how close your production field is to optimum soil health. See a demonstration

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Water infiltration test A water infiltration test takes a little more time to set up, but it’s a very direct assessment of your soil’s ability to take in heavy rainfall. You will need: •

A six-inch diameter metal pipe cut to a six inch length

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of this method here (“Soil Health Assessment: Rainfall Infiltration”).

Want to learn more?

NRCS Soil Health Assessment Guides: www.nrcs.usda. gov/conservation-basics/natural-resource-concerns/ soils/soil-health/soil-health-assessment Soil Health Institute Recommended Soil Health Measurements: soilhealthinstitute.org/app/uploads/2022/10/ SHI_SoilHealthMeasurements_factsheet.pdf Cornell Soil Health Assessment Training Manual: www. canr.msu.edu/foodsystems/uploads/files/cornell_soilhealth.pdf Rue Genger has worked with organic vegetable farmers in the Upper Midwest for the past 16 years as a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rue is part of the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative, a group of direct-market growers, plant breeders, and chefs working to select vegetable varieties with great flavor that are adapted to Upper Midwest growing conditions. Rue co-facilitates the Climate Resilient Organic Vegetable Production (CROVP) group, a community of farmers, researchers and extension professionals committed to farmer-led research into reduced tillage and other resilient vegetable production systems. Rue was also one of the hosts at our August 17 Field Day at Circadian Organics on Reduced Tillage and Seed Production.

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Farmer-led learning.

From the grassroots.

Marbleseed exists to help farmers thrive in organic agriculture systems— and we can do it because of your support.

Right now, Marbleseed is raising $35,000 to support its work into the new year. Our partners at Hiwassee Products have donated $4,500 to get us started, but we need your support too, dear reader.

If everyone reading this donated just $7, we’d reach our fundraising goal for the entire year, but the reality is that just a fraction will choose to donate. If you find value in the work we do, please make a donation of any amount today.

Donate online at marbleseed.org/donate or by mail: Marbleseed PO BOX 339 Spring Valley, WI 54767

“As an emerging equipment manufacturer for farmproduced biological amendments, Hiwassee Products is pleased to sponsor Marbleseed’s advocacy for organic and regenerative agricultural practices. We appreciate and support Marbleseed’s commitment to education, innovation, and collaboration toward healthier soils throughout the Midwest and beyond.”

Fruit Production: Organic Currant and Gooseberry Production

Organic Currant and Gooseberry Production

By Chris McGuire Currants and gooseberries are tart, delicious, and healthful fruits which are increasingly grown on organic farms in the Upper Midwest. My goal here is to introduce these two berry crops and highlight key considerations for new growers, based on our own experience growing them in southwest Wisconsin and on my conversations with other farmers and researchers.

Begin by considering your markets.

Neither currants nor gooseberries are widely grown or consumed in the U.S. It’s unrealistic to expect consumers to buy them in the same volume as more widely known blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries.

In our experience currants and gooseberries sell poorly in grocery stores, where they are not aggressively marketed and remain largely Organic Broadcaster | 34

unnoticed besides more common fruits. Currants and gooseberries can be good additions to a farmers market stand, where farmer-vendors can tout the berries’ flavor and healthful properties and provide samples and serving suggestions.

Some growers have also found profitable niche markets selling to immigrants from parts of eastern Europe, where these berries are more widely consumed.

Fresh currants and gooseberries are too tart for many consumers’ tastes. Some possible exceptions are Pink Champagne currants, which are sweet, bubbly, and lovable, and highly flavored gooseberry varieties such as Tixia and Black Velvet, which are delicious and only slightly tart if allowed to fully ripen on the plant.

Overall, I recommend caution in planting currants or gooseberries for fresh market – although these ber-

ries can be profitable components of a diverse farm, demand for them is limited.

Currants and gooseberries can be processed into juices, jams and jellies, syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Berries sold to local processors command a lower price than fresh market berries. From our experience and others’ reports, prices at commercial processors are less than $4 or $4.50 per pound. Retail prices for local organic fresh currants and gooseberries generally range from $5-$8 per pint, which translates to approximately $7.50-$12.00 per pound.

The health benefits of these berries have received attention. Black currants have particularly high levels of antioxidants and Vitamin C. Note that black currants are a distinct plant from red, white, and pink currants, with the black currants have a pronounced flavor (often described as “earthy”); many people find black

currants’ flavor to be strong and unpleasant unless they are blended with other fruits and/or sweetened in processed products.

Switching away from marketing, consider how these berries can fit into your farm. From a farm management perspective, harvest labor is probably the predominant issue in growing currants and gooseberries. Don’t jump into a large planting of these berries unless you have the time to pick them (or you are planning to buy an expensive imported machine harvester!) In the Upper Midwest, currants and gooseberries generally ripen in July or late June. It may be wise to select varieties which can extend the harvest and marketing window. An early currant variety like Jonkheer van Tets, e.g., ripens at least two weeks earlier than the late variety Rovada.

Harvest labor is an important factor in your choice of varieties and growing methods. Currants are borne in clusters, called strigs, and an entire strig can be picked at once, which speeds harvest in varieties such as Rovada or Blanka, which produce heavy, well-filled strigs. Pink Champange is a delicious currant variety, but it produces small poorly filled strigs which are slow to harvest. We have found that we typically can only pick 5-10 lbs per hour of Pink Champagne, versus 20-30 (or even 40) lbs per hour of Blanka or Rovada. Gooseberries produce fruits individually or in small groups, which slows picking, and gooseberries are thorny, which induces high levels of fear in fruit pickers and further slows the harvest.

Yield is another important factor influencing picking

speed. High yielding varieties such as Captivator or Hinnomaki Red gooseberries are much faster to harvest, because pickers spend less time hunting and searching for fruit.

The yields of currants and gooseberries can be high, up to 300-400 lbs of currants or 200 lbs of gooseberries per 100 feet of row on our farm, so a modest planting may meet local demand and also exhaust your labor supply.

Currants and gooseberries are both vigorous, easy to establish plants which begin to fruit in their second year. Bare-root plants are readily available from nurseries, although it can be hard to locate specific varieties in commercial quantities. It is also possible to purchase plugs (small plants grown in trays and sold with an intact root ball), although we have found that plugs establish and come into production more slowly than bare-root plants.

Currants and gooseberries should be trained and/or pruned, to thin out the canopy, ease harvest, and improve fruit size and quality. In the United States most currants and gooseberries are grown as freestanding bushes, planted approximately three feet apart within the row. Bush plants are generally pruned each winter to maintain a plant with 10-12 canes divided evenly between one-, two-, and three-year old canes. Freestanding bushes require relatively little time or money to establish and are simple to maintain. I particularly rec-

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ommend this method for busy, diverse farms with little time and attention to spare during the growing season.

In Europe, currants and gooseberries for fresh market are generally grown on a trellis using the “cordon trellis method.” Plants are spaced closely, 1.5 feet apart within the row, and each plant is pruned to 1-3 permanent vertical stems (the cordons), which are supported by a trellis and can reach six feet high. Fruit is produced on short horizontal branches growing from the cordons, and these fruiting branches are regularly pruned off and regrown. We’ve trialed the cordon trellis method on our farm for four years. The chief benefit of the cordon trellis is a very narrow plant canopy with excellent light penetration, resulting in good quality fruit which ripen uniformly and are easy to pick. Disadvantages are the high startup costs required for trellis construction and for the higher plant density and also the regular pruning and training required during the growing season - not just in winter. Given the high startup costs, it’s important to maximize yields from trellised plantings. I only recommend this method for growers who can focus on growing these fruits and working out the details of the trellising method.

These berries are shallow rooted crops which do not tolerate competition from grasses and other weeds.

Organic mulches such as wood chips can suppress weeds but tend to be invaded by spreading perennial weeds over time and thus require hand-weeding for maintenance. Currants and gooseberries also have a tendency to spread over time, as low-lying branches root into the soil, leading to diffuse crop plants intermingled with weeds, which are frustrating and slow to hand-weed. Synthetic mulches such as landscape fabric are less desirable from an environmental standpoint but do provide better weed control over time, and they also prevent berry branches from rooting and thus keeping the crop contained. Under organic regulations these plastic mulches will also need to be removed before they degrade into the soil, which can be extremely difficult if grass has grown over and into the mulch.

Currants and gooseberries can suffer from serious diseases, an important consideration on organic farms.

White Pine Blister rust is a foliar disease which infects both currants and gooseberries. This disease requires that both pines and the berries be present to complete its life cycle. Resistant berry varieties are available, and it’s generally recommended to choose resistant varieties where white pines are present. Powdery mildew can severely infect susceptible currant varieties, particularly in warmer parts of the Midwest. If you wish to grow a susceptible variety, such as Blanka, researchers have found that a 1% solution of horticultural oil (such as the OMRI-approved JMS Stylet Oil) provides good control when sprayed regularly starting in spring. Anthracnose leaf spot can heavily infect gooseberries, causing leaf spots and major defoliation. Trials on our farm show that sprays of copper soap (Cueva brand) can control this disease, and some varieties such as Hinnomaki Red are at Organic Broadcaster | 36

least partially resistant. In general, if currants and gooseberries are a small component of a diverse produce farm, I highly recommend planting disease-resistant varieties. A minor crop on your farm probably will not merit the attention needed for regular disease sprays during the growing season.

All in all, currants and gooseberries are healthful, delicious fruits which can thrive on organic farms in our region. Currants are particularly easy to grow, high-yielding plants; gooseberries can be more challenging crops because of their sharp thorns, lower yields, and greater disease pressure. The labor-intensive harvest and limited market demand are challenges in growing both of these berries.

RESOURCES Barney, Danny L., and Kim E. Hummer. 2005. Currants, Gooseberries, and Jostaberries: A Guide for Growers, Marketers, and Researchers in North America. Food Products Press.

Currant Production in the Upper Midwest. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzunrQsTFho Black Currants: A Superfruit for the Midwest. www.savannainstitute.org/blackcurrants/ Cordon Trellis Method for Currants and Gooseberries. www.twoonionfarm.com/CordonTrellisResultsSummaryFebruary2023.pdf Organic Control of Anthracnose Leaf Spot in Gooseberry. www.twoonionfarm.com/WebsiteReportAnthracnoseLeafSpotGooseberry.pdf Chris McGuire and his wife Juli farm at Two Onion Farm in Belmont WI, where they raise organic fruit for their local community. Perplexingly, they do not grow onions. Contact Chris at twoonionfarm@gmail.com.

Grain Production: Increasing Biodiversity on the Farm with Food-grade Grains

Increasing Biodiversity on the Farm with Food-grade Grains

By Amy Halloran Growing grains for local markets is an appealing prospect, and you can increasingly find bakeries, breweries and distilleries using grains of known origin. Yet, managing higher value grain crops for human consumption is no small feat, and there are many moving pieces to consider as you think about growing food-grade grains.

Scaling down grain production from a commodity level means reinventing several agricultural wheels, from seed varieties, planting practices, and on-farm handling systems, clear through to layers of marketing logistics.

The Artisan Grain Collaborative (AGC), Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, and grain breeders and Extension specialists at University of Wisconsin-Madison observed a need for a growers’ guide to consolidate practical technical information on producing, handling, and marketing organic food-grade grains in the region.

The New Growers’ Guide to Producing Organic Food Grade Grains in the Upper Midwest is a free resource for farmers interested in high-value food-grade grains – whether they are new to farming or thinking of incorporating grains into an existing commodity grain, diversified vegetable, or livestock operation. As harvest winds down and mental space starts to open up, we’re sharing a summary to help map the considerations involved.

Introduction Many Midwest grain growers are familiar with producing commodity grains. Corn and soybeans make up most of our crop acreage, and these crops generally travel

to market via grain elevators. But breaking down bulk production and focusing on higher-value food-grade targets isn’t as simple as swapping seed varieties. To grow and sell a food-grade grain crop means studying soils, weeds, and the growth habits of target crops, and setting up a range of systems for harvest, handling and storage on-farm or nearby.

A ‘food-grade grain’ is any edible grain crop that meets minimum quality and safety standards for human consumption. Food-grade grains are meant to be eaten by people, either directly or as ingredients in foods or beverages. Given that most grains reach us already transformed by milling, malting, brewing, distilling, and other handling steps, farming food-grade grains often involves selling to an intermediary processor. For instance, hard red winter wheat might go to a mill or a milling bakery, and a white corn could be produced for a tortilla manufacturer. Cereals like rye and barley, legumes like dry beans or lentils, oilseeds such as sunflower or canola, and buckwheat or other pseudocereals all fit this category.

Food-grade Quality Specifications Food-grade grains have special quality requirements, either for basic safety reasons, or specific to the final use of a grain. For example, grains destined for malting need to meet different performance targets than milling grains, and testing reflects those parameters. Here are some details on how testing works.

37 | Marbleseed.org

2. Quality Testing: These tests verify that your grain will perform as expected in mills, breweries, bakeries, and other processing facilities. Inspection services by a third party will provide an official Certificate of Analysis (CoA) for the grain lot.

3. Identity Preservation: There is a more rigorous chain of documentation that accompanies food-grade grain lots, especially if you are trying to market specific varieties.

The process keeps food grade-production lots, and associated documentation or CoAs, separate and traceable; this resembles contract production of identity-preserved soybeans or non-GMO corn, which may be more familiar to growers of row crops.

Grain Categories Harvesting ‘Warthog’ hard red winter wheat. Photo Credit: John Wepking, Meadowlark Organics

1. Safety Testing: All food-grade grains must be tested for fungal toxins (mycotoxins). Depending on marketing pathway, grain may also be tested for presence of pesticide residues, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), or allergens, such as gluten. The FDA has guidelines for acceptable levels of the mycotoxins deoxynivalenol, also known as DON or vomitoxin (all grain), aflatoxin (corn), fumonisin (corn), and toxins from ergot fungus (small grains).

Generally, grains are referred to by planting seasons.

‘Winter’ grains are planted in the fall to be harvested in early summer. This contrasts with ‘spring’ grains, planted as early as possible in the spring and harvested late summer. Spring grains typically will not survive cold winters. Warm season grains prefer warm soils and a long growing season and are planted mid spring and harvested as late as the weather allows, often in late fall or early winter. Examples type of each grain category are listed below: Winter grains: cereal rye, winter wheat, and winter barley.

Spring grains: hard spring wheat, barley, Durum wheat, oats, triticale, spelt, emmer, and einkorn.

Warm season grains: open pollinated (OP) corn, sorghum, millets, rice, teff, pseudocereals, buckwheat, grain legumes, soybeans, cowpeas, and dry beans.

NOTE: Perennial grains such as Kernza® are very much worth incorporating into a farm’s food-grade plans, but their selection, care and handling differ substantially from annual grains, and demand their own resources; see the Guide’s appendix for more information.

many farmers new to producing food-grade grains, it may work best to focus on one type of grain, and then add diversity to the rotation as you gain experience.

Last but not at all least, know how you will harvest and store what you grow before you plant anything. Too many times, farmers dive into food-grade grains without sorting out these details. Come July and August they end up hunting for a combine, and learn they need drying equipment, and storage, while they think through potential markets. These endpoints matter as much as giving a crop a good start.

Post Harvest Handling & Storage

Preharvest sprouting of wheat. Photo Credit: Linda Brown, Michigan State University

These quality maintenance and storage elements of grain growing processes left farms decades ago as production centralized and crops began routinely leaving fields by the tractor trailer load. Even if you are familiar with growing grains for bulk sale, setting up post-harvest handling and storage systems will take a good amount of study, and depending on the scale of your operations, some DIY work and deep shopping at auctions and resalers may be involved. Bare minimum for harvesting food-grade grains at the right moment is having a moisture meter. Luckily the technology has come down to an affordable price, and it is easy to have one handy to see when your crop is ready. As with all parts of food-grade grain production, the required moisture varies by crop, and given the variable weather in the region, having

What Type of Food-Grade Grain Fits My Farm?

Understanding how food-grade grains fit in your farm’s operations takes a big picture scan and lots of close-ups.

Knowing you want to connect with certain bakers or distillers can influence what you pursue, and information on how the flow of rotations affect economic and ecologic health will also help you weigh planting and other decisions. The Guide provides detailed agronomic information on tillage and fertility, and other aspects of crop management, but this table gives an overview of planting, weeding and harvest timelines at a glance. Use it to visualize some of the most time-sensitive operations in producing high-quality grains, and how they might fit with what’s already happening on your farm/in your life.

Planning rotations is another major factor that affects choosing crops. Building soil health and priming fields by planting rotations in an order that serves each crop gives you a better chance of meeting quality parameters. A few general rules apply, such as not planting corn immediately prior to wheat, barley or rye, because of the likelihood of fusarium clinging to crop stubble. Vetches are to be avoided, since sorting this seed from wheat or rye is difficult. Pairing a nitrogen fixing plant like alfalfa can boost protein if that’s desired; for wheat, this can be the case, but for malting barley, this is not. As you can see, the roulettes of rotations can be overwhelming. For 39 | Marbleseed.org

drying equipment on hand so you can catch a grain at the right moment of development and prior to sprouting or other damage, is important.

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On-farm food-grade grain storage. Photo Credit: Alyssa Hartman, Artisan Grain Collaborative

Once you’ve got a crop in from the field and dried to a good stabilizing moisture, you’ll need to store it. The guide offers an overview of possibilities, and how to pursue them.

AGC is excited to show you the skeleton of this tool, just one of many ways we try to increase food-grade grain production in the Midwest. We also recommend connecting with others growing food-grade grains. As an example, we’re sharing the enthusiasm of one of our current Midwest GRIT cohort farmers, Mitch Coulter of Compass Lane Farm, outside of Chicago. Mitch says, “The people who are running the GRIT program are a really creative group of folks who have a passion for making this possible.” He’s met and learned with peers, like Tim Schacht in Ohio who’s growing popcorn. “Why am I not growing that?”

Amy Halloran wrote THE NEW BREAD BASKET, and teaches baking in various settings. She is working on a history of American bread baking that is also a memoir of the city of Troy, New York.

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Inside Organics: Extracting Liquid Amendments from Bio-Rich Compost

Simple yet Powerful: Extracting liquid amendments from bio-rich compost

By Jesse Wiser Awareness of the importance and influence of soil microbiology in crop nutrition, disease and pest resistance, soil aggregation and water infiltration is growing in agricultural circles. Research exists and is increasing at all levels around methods to expand and diversify the microbial populations within soil ecosystems. While professional solutions may be sought, a low-cost, high-impact, self-driven process offers tremendous upside: the extraction of liquid biological amendments from microbiologically-rich compost.

Producing biologically-rich compost Matt Ball of the US Composting Council defines composting as “managed aerobic decomposition.” That’s a broad definition for an extremely variable process, and the resulting material – compost

– is far from homogenous, even if aerobic conditions are successfully maintained. Feedstock material, temperature, airflow, moisture, and length of time are all variable factors that drive decomposition, and a wide range of outcomes are possible in terms of microbial content within materials generally called “compost.”

Specific composting methods have been developed to produce a microbiologically-rich compost product. Perhaps the most versatile and efficient is vermicomposting.

Among the roles of earthworms within the soil ecosystem is the inoculation of microbes through the worms’ digestive process, which multiply within the worms’ castings.

Feeding organic materials – preferably already at least somewhat decomposed – to and through a highly concentrated worm population can exponentially multiply the biomass and diversity of plant-beneficial microbes. In a recent study entitled “The Vermi-Microbiome Project”,

Dr. Zack Jones of Aggrego Data analyzed a variety of vermicompost samples using DNA sequencing. Dr. Jones demonstrated a high level of bacterial biodiversity across all samples, regardless of feedstock and other factors. Well-represented bacterial genii included those responsible for production of auxins, gibberellins, and other plant growth- and health-promoting compounds.

If a fungal-dominant vermicompost product is desired, the Johnson-Su bioreactor process is both simple and effective. Dr. David Johnson of New Mexico State University has developed an easily replicable, low-cost, and low-labor method to control decomposition of carbon-dominant organic materials through static aeration, moisture control, and the inclusion of worms.

The resulting product contains a high level of beneficial fungi, which is often unachievable through other composting methods. The only downside to this process is the time commitment – it can take a full year for the material within a bioreactor to completely decompose.

Regardless of composting method, the microbiological quality of the 41 | Marbleseed.org

resulting compost can be assessed prior to extraction.

Samples can be sent to labs, such as those certified

by Dr. Elaine Ingham’s Soil Foodweb School, or tested with simple onsite tools such as the microBIOMETER©.

Results from these tests can help guide decisions on the concentration and application rate of the liquid amendment to be extracted.

Simeon Kleinsasser, a certified Soil Food Web soil consultant from East Tennessee, mixes these foods into compost extract while filling his sprayer tank, likening it to “sending the microbes out to work with a lunch pail.”

These foods help the introduced microbes establish themselves, while also stimulating existing microbes within the soil or leaf surfaces.

Extracting liquid compost amendments

Applying liquid biological amendments

While there are many benefits of applying compost in solid form, extracting the microbiology into a liquid amendment can increase the efficiency and area of the application, as well as transferring the microbes directly into the soil – via infiltration or injection – or onto leaf surfaces as a foliar spray. The liquid solution will also contain soluble compounds already produced by the microbes. Before extracting the liquid amendments, it’s important to make sure the mineral content of the water source is suitable for microbiology – it may be necessary to use rainwater (which should also be tested), or to pretreat the water through a filtration system.

Application of compost extract and/or tea will depend largely on the desired results. Broad acre applications will provide some benefit, but more specific application methods will yield more intentional results. Soil drenches and injections target the microbial ecosystem surrounding plant roots, while seed coating and root drench applications prior to planting will import desired microbiology with the crop itself. Foliar sprays, which provide some of the most robust protection from pathogenic microbes, can be applied throughout the growing season.

Widely accepted terminology regarding liquid amendments has yet to be ironed out – perhaps it never will be – but it’s important to note the difference between what I’ll call “compost extract” and “compost tea,” which are produced in crucially distinct manners. Compost extract is a direct liquid extraction from the solid compost. Microbes are held in a static condition within the solution – they maintain homeostasis, but the population remains constant. Because of this, compost extract can be stored for several days or even weeks before application, but should be circulated on a daily basis until application, which will introduce enough dissolved oxygen to prevent the solution from turning anaerobic.

Compost tea, on the other hand, is created by adding food sources and aerating the solution with bubbles of oxygen, which stimulates the microbes into multiplying their population. This shortens the aerobic shelf life of the solution to a matter of hours, and is usually done within a deliberate window prior to application. Compost tea is typically produced directly from the compost material; however, compost extract can be used to produce compost tea through a separate aerating process. For instance, an operator may wish to produce a large batch of compost extract and store it for several days, using it to produce one daily batch of compost tea at a time.

(An aside on compost leachate: Some composters mistakenly consider leachate – the liquid that collects and runs out of the bottom of a compost pile – to be “compost tea,” and treat it as beneficial. This is incorrect, and potentially detrimental, as it is most likely anaerobic and frequently contains high concentrations of pathogens and/or heavy metals. Please don’t make that mistake!)

Microbial foods, such as blackstrap molasses, kelp powder, and fish hydrolysate, can also be added to compost extract or compost tea, before or during application.

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Spray systems demand particular consideration. Many conventional sprayers are designed for chemical applications and contain features such as rotary pumps and smaller spray nozzles which can damage the microbiology, especially when applied at high pressures.

Diaphragm and centrifugal pumps are safer options.

Microbial solutions should be applied at low pressure with larger spray tips to create a droplet, rather than mist, effect.

Benefits of self-production Beyond the biological impacts, there are several particular benefits to self-producing liquid compost amendments. Composting organic debris generated by the farm itself and/or sourcing local materials such as fall leaves and wood chips fosters a closed-loop recycling system while minimizing waste. Microbes native to these local materials are best adapted to local environments, and locally-sourced organic materials tend to be easy and affordable to acquire. Economic and environmental costs of shipping, including paying for water weight, are eliminated in self-production.

Cost savings are even more dramatic when compared to synthetic inputs. Jay Young, who produces compost extract at his 8,000 acre farm and ranch in western Kansas, estimates cost savings of $200,000 for 2022 alone without experiencing any decreases in yield per acre. With increasing prices of synthetic fertilizers, compost amendments will become increasingly economical – and could even generate an income stream of their own.

Some biological knowledge or consultancy may be necessary to achieve the best results, as may a certain degree of trial and error to discover the best avenues to

pursue for each situation within a highly variable process. However, the cost-effectiveness and simplicity of self-produced biological amendments makes this both a powerful and accessible tool for fostering healthy and abundant soil ecosystems.

A version of this article appeared in the April 2023 issue of Acres USA magazine.

Jesse Wiser is a co-founder and current Marketing Director of Hiwassee Products LLC, a manufacturing company developing equipment systems for soil biology solutions based in Madisonville, Tennessee. He can be reached at jessewiser@hiwasseeproducts.com.

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Keeping Vegetable Farmers Growing Through One-on-One Professional Peer Coaching

Keeping Vegetable Farmers Growing Through One-on-One Professional Peer Coaching

By Sarah Janes Ugoretz “I’ve been farming for 17 years, and for much of that time, I had a life centered on sacrifice to a farm and a vision. Not a week goes by when I don’t wish that I could talk to a younger me and tell her that there isn’t a perfect way to create a farm-centered life, but there is a much better way.”

Sound familiar? For many, this sentiment – shared

by Katrina Becker, a Wisconsin-based producer – has become all too common in the world of smaller-scale farming. Farmers talk openly about how all-encompassing this profession is. It can take over your life, and when you’re running on fumes, it can feel almost impossible to make changes or even envision another way of doing things. Add to this mix seasonality, increasing climate chaos, inflation, and countless other pressures, and it’s not hard to see why farmers often feel like they’re stuck in a pattern of reacting to stimuli rather than shaping their actions.

Fortunately, farmers have a growing number of supportive resources to tap into as they navigate all manner of issues – and we’re adding another one to the mix.

Farm Coaching – Professional Coaching by Farmers For Farmers is a new program supported by FairShare CSA Coalition and serving producers across the Midwest.

Through countless conversations with growers, coaching emerged as a dynamic tool that can help farmers create space and perspective while disrupting their status quo in meaningful and lasting ways. What’s unique about this program is that not only are farm coaches profesOrganic Broadcaster | 44

sionally trained and certified, they also have extensive experience as farmers themselves and bring that lived understanding and empathy into the conversation from the very start.

What Is Farm Coaching Anyway?

Coaching is about identifying a specific goal – or two or three – and making it happen. Maybe you want to improve your systems so that your days are less hectic and more organized. Or perhaps you need to reevaluate your farm’s vision and mission so you can stop saying yes to everything and start investing in the things that will better support your business and your quality of life.

While your farm coach won’t tell you the exact systems to implement or decide which accounts you should prioritize, they will listen to you and coach you to your best outcome based on your identified goals. Whether it’s family dynamics, work-life balance, financial sustainability, or something else, farm coaching can be that disruptor – that “restart” you might be looking for to ultimately make something feel or work better.

Katie Bishop, who farms more than 400 acres of organic vegetables and grain at PrairiErth Farm, is one of three coaches supporting producers through this program.

During a recent conversation with the Midwest Vegetable Growers Network (MVEG), she talked about what led her to coaching back in 2021: “I was on the verge of some pretty major burnout after 14 years of farming. I was struggling with communica-

tion and felt like I had very little control over what was happening. I wanted to spend time off the farm, but I didn’t have the time or energy. And I kept self-sabotaging – saying yes to everything and then resenting it later when I was eating frozen pizza or missing my niece’s graduation. I knew I couldn’t keep doing this, but I felt so powerless to make a change – and guilty for wanting to. I started working with a coach who helped me identify those next small steps, and over time, I could really hone in on what was stressing me out and making me unhappy. I used that knowledge to help me make tiny changes and some pretty huge adjustments – and looking back, that feels pretty great.”

Program Structure & Support Just as farmer conversations led to the creation of this program, farmer participation is helping to shape and refine it so that it meets producers’ needs in real and meaningful ways. As farmer members of the Advisory Team, Zachary Austin (WI), Chris McGuire (WI), Kendyl Meadows (OH), Julie Perkins (IN), and John Williams (IL) are currently working with their own farm coach. Their feedback as coaching participants is helping to streamline administrative processes on the back end while enhancing the farm coachee experience on the user end.

Meanwhile Dr. Leslie Forstadt, a Human Development Specialist with the University of Maine-Extension, supports a successful farm coaching program on the East Coast. Her years of experience serving farmers through coaching has greatly benefited our nascent program here in the Midwest. Farm coaches are also on the Advisory Team. Joining Katie Bishop are Angie Sullivan and Doug Wubben. Angie has served farmers for over 20 years through her work with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP), as an organic specialist for MOSES (now Marbleseed), and in her current role as Director of Operations for the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship. And for 10 years, she also owned and operated her own vegetable CSA and grazing farm. Meanwhile, Doug has extensive experience managing a diversified vegetable operation, promoting CSA farms during FairShare’s early years, and building farm-to-school programs with REAP Food Group and UW-CIAS. For the past 12 years, he has also worked in various roles as a nurse in the healthcare system. Read more about Katie, Angie, and Doug and their experience as farmers and coaches on the program webpage (csacoalition.org/farm-coaching). Finally, Claire Strader (UW Extension-Dane County) and Sarah Janes Ugoretz (FairShare) provide additional programmatic support.

This program has gone from an idea with a lot of potential to a concrete resource serving farmers in real time, thanks to funding provided by a North Central SARE Partnership Grant and with additional support coming through Marbleseed. The vast majority of these funds are being used to subsidize the cost of coaching for vegetable farmers – to include both owners and workers –

operating in WI, MN, ND, SD, NE, KS, IA, MO, IL, IN, OH, and MI. For farmers who may be interested in exploring coaching, the process is fairly straightforward and begins with completing a very brief intake form on the program webpage. This leads to a no-cost exploratory call with a coach to discuss what coaching might look like and what you might focus on. From there, farmers decide whether to take the next step and pursue formal coaching through 5 sessions – with “Call a Coach” support available between each session. Typically, farmers meet with their coaches by phone or over Zoom and schedule sessions on a timeline that works best for them. The overall cost of coaching through this program is $1200, and while grant funds are available, $800 of that cost is covered by a subsidy. Farmers pay the remaining $400 directly to their coach.

Professional Farm Coaching – One Resource Among Many Zooming back out, we know that farmers are struggling – and they have been for quite some time. Professional farm coaching is a unique tool that can help farmers identify a specific goal and work towards a concrete and lasting result. It doesn’t take the place of a financial advisor, a business consultant, a therapist, a marriage counselor, or a mentor. Instead, coaching is a complementary resource that can help farmers address the challenges that are keeping them from moving forward in ways that meet their business needs, their personal needs, or both.

As we leave summer behind us, we know one thing: winter isn’t always the time of rest farmers dream it could be. The work is different, but it’s still very much work.

Not to mention, farmers often feel the added pressure of making several major changes during the off-season so that next season will be more bearable. And when that doesn’t happen, farmers are often left with feelings of guilt, even failure or despair. On this topic, Laura Fredrickson-Gosewisch, a farmer and farm wellness expert based in Minnesota, recently shared these powerful words: “We’re all waiting for this perfect scenario that’s probably never coming. We need to question the belief that, ‘Once everything is OK, then I can take a break.’ Actually, we need to take a break now while we figure out how to make everything be OK. We need to embrace caring for ourselves daily.” For some farmers, coaching may be the key to helping them do this; it may provide a way to pause, reflect, assess, and then take action on those goals that can ultimately help to create greater year-round balance.

Sarah works with FairShare CSA Coalition where she supports the Organic Vegetable Farm Manager Apprenticeship and collaborates closely with farmers – both workers and owners – to build positive labor experiences on diversified vegetable farms.

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