Organic Broadcaster | Fall 2024 | Volume 32, Issue 4
GrowinG ToGeTher: MenTorship proGraMs aT Marbleseed
how To inClude More CoVer Crops in your roTaTion
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
Editors: Alexandria Baker, Marguerite Rapp
Content Outreach: Tay Fatke
Graphic Designer: Jo Facklam
Advertising Coordinator: Sophia Cleveland
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.
Manage your subscription by emailing info@marbleseed.org
cOver PhOtO credit: Brix Orchard, Mt. Horeb, Wis.
From The execuTive DirecTor
Ben Franklin is credited with saying, “Democracy is not two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.” This has always been one of my favorite quotes. Beyond the farm reference, it truly speaks to the role that we all have as members of a community to look beyond our own self interests. That it would be too easy to let majority rule disregard the needs of the minority.
Last month I had the privilege of meeting in a small group with USDA Deputy Secretary Torres Small and then attending a larger public town hall with both Secretary Vilsack and the Deputy Secretary together. I was so heartened by their ease in voicing that many of the agricultural systems in place only benefit a small percentage of farmers and that 86% of farm families rely on off-farm income. Audience members were posed a seemingly rhetorical question of “Are we happy with this system we have created that benefits the few at the expense of our climate, our rural communities, our health and animal welfare?”
The 2023 Farm Bill has morphed into the 2024 Farm Bill—maybe. What is currently holding it up is a discussion on increased reference prices on rice, peanuts, and cotton. The Environmental Working Group estimates that increasing reference prices on these crops will cost between $10-80 billion dollars and benefit roughly 6,000 farms out of the 2 million farms in the United States.
Leadership at USDA clearly knows that government programs are not helping most farmers, and they are definitely not supporting emerging, organic, small, or midsized farmers. If democracy is a participatory process, then who are our Members of Congress and agency staff hearing from most often? Why, despite knowing the numbers, inequities, and injustice, does the status quo persist? Would it really make a difference if WE called, wrote letters, and visited more often? Could we do it if we knew it would? Suddenly we can imagine a food and farming system that embodies the organic principles of health, caring, fairness, and ecology—one that makes human-scale farms viable and positively impacts 93% of farms.
And if the most cynical among us see this as merely a “rage against the machine,” how CAN WE build a system that is resilient and sustainable and fair? This year, Marbleseed’s Organic Farming Conference theme will be “Local Food Revolution.” We have seen the power of local food system implementation to improve farmer livelihoods and nourish communities. With federal support for these efforts sunsetting this spring, we need
to work together to leverage our successes, newfound partnerships, and collaborative efforts to envision how to continue this work into the future.
In this spirit, we are kicking off the Marbleseed Fall Fundraiser by procuring ingredients from local, organic farms! We recognize that not everyone is able to experience the magic that happens when we gather for our annual conference in La Crosse, so this year we are trying a distributed event that will offer chances to support local organic farms and restaurants in Minneapolis, La Crosse, Madison, and Milwaukee. In a celebration of local food and squash, Marty’s Deli in Minneapolis, La Crosse Distillery in La Crosse, Ahan in Madison, and Amilinda in Milwaukee will all feature squash dishes with proceeds going to Marbleseed! More info and menu details will be added to our Cheers to Organic Farming event webpage
Our Fall Fundraising campaign also includes a signature organic beer release in partnership with La Crosse Distilling. The Farmony Farmhouse Ale, brewed by La Crosse Distilling with the help of Marbleseed staff and board, will be available alongside dishes featuring fall and winter squash from Circadian Organics and Dropseed Farm. Look for Alexandria Baker’s article on page 24 for more information on how to taste the new brew and support our work by dining at our partner restaurants!
I cannot close this letter without going back to the beginning with a reminder to get out and vote! Democracy is not a spectator sport. Our farms and the next generation of farmers deserve our participation.
Lori Stern, M.A. Ed
GrowinG, MarkeTinG, & MeasurinG The CliMaTe-sMarT iMpaCTs oF orGaniC Grain
By Mercedes Talvitie, Marbleseed
Field day season reCap
Everyone remembers their first field day—mine was at Polyface Farms in Swoope, Va. Although I was conscious of the need for a just food system, I was taught that agricultural activities were extractive and contributed to environmental degradation. However, at my first field day I saw soil health and conservation in action as part of a productive agricultural system. I walked away from that event inspired by innovative producers and next thing I knew, I was working on a diverse operation and moving broilers every morning.
Fast forward half a decade, I am collaborating and hosting my first season of field days funded by the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) grant that Marbleseed is leading. We had four amazing climate-smart field days this summer led by some of our project partners.
Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) kicked the summer off at Mud Run Farm. This small, organic, diversified farm sits on 30 acres in northeast Ohio. Certified with OEFFA, the father—daughter farmer duo behind Mud Run Farm grow and mill small grains for their region and serve as stewards of organics and the environment. Utilizing horse-drawn equipment and sustainable practices, this tour showcased their knowledge of organic practices, small grains, and stone milling.
Tennessee State University (TSU) College of Agriculture hosted their field day at TSU’s organic farm. Participants learned about varieties of field and sweet corn growing on the farm and the organic management practices used to support them, including precision agriculture and smart irrigation systems. The organic farm also boasts the use of 16 cover crops, and attendees toured the trial plots and discussed the uses and benefits of cover crops in an organic cropping system.
Marbleseed was lucky to collaborate with the Organic Grain Resource and Information Network (OGRAIN) at Arlington Agricultural Research Station in Wisconsin. We spent the morning touring the organic research plots run by Dr. Erin Silva’s lab at UW-Wisconsin. This year’s field trials include roller crimping, strip tilling, and dry bean variety testing. We also toured the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST). WICST is one of the most diverse long-term cropping systems experiment with 34 years of data and 60 acres of conventional, organic, cash grain, dairy forage, perennial bioenergy, and livestock grazing enterprises.
Our team ended the summer with the Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing (OFARM) in South Dakota for lively discussions featuring their knowledgeable marketers who covered organic grain
prices and the importance of utilizing a marketer. We took a trip to Berrybrook Farm to learn about their multiple enterprises that support one another. For example, they mill their grain for organic egg production, which yields direct-marketed eggs to grocery stores, eggs for their ice cream, and cracked eggs for their pigs! While we anxiously awaited ice cream samples, we learned how the farm is combating thistle with a crop rotation that includes industrial hemp and cover crops.
I’ve learned a lot from this season of field days— everything from the importance of maintaining integrity in organics, the potential of dry bean varieties in notill systems, and that organic farmers drink a lot less Mountain Dew than conventional farmers. I am grateful that we have four more years of field days with our amazing partners and hope to see you at one next year!
abouT usda parTnerships For CliMaTe-sMarT CoMModiTies
The USDA invested more than $3 billion in 135 innovative projects as part of their Climate-Smart Commodities program. This investment seeks to build agricultural resilience and expand market opportunities
2024 and subsequenT year praCTiCes
• 340 Cover Crop
• 345 Residue and Tillage Management, Reduced Till
• 327 Conservation Cover
• 328 Conservation Crop Rotation
• 329 Residue and Tillage Management, No-Till
• 528 Prescribed Grazing
• 590 Nutrient Management
by investing in projects that utilize, enhance, or measure climate-smart practices that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. There are projects in each US state that are diverse in scope, and they all support farmers and ranches in their journey to implement climate-smart practices.
Now what is considered climate-smart? For this funding opportunity, a climate-smart commodity is defined as an agricultural commodity produced using farming, ranching, or forestry practices that reduce and/or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon. The comprehensive list of USDA-approved practices was based off NRCS conservation practices (see Practices covered table below) that meet two additional criteria:
• The activity is expected to provide net greenhouse gas emission reductions or removal, as supported by scientific literature
• There is a science-based method to quantitatively estimate these mitigation benefits
The variety of strategies that meet these criteria can be applied to farms and ranches of all sizes and demographics. It is important, and a goal of the USDA, to support and encourage small and medium-sized farms to participate in the PCSC program. All US farmers play a critical role in contributing to a diverse, resilient food system.
The goals of PCSC demonstrate that farmers are on the leading edge of natural climate change mitigation strategies. With the help of farmers and ranchers, the entire PCSC program will sequester or avoid over 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the life of the projects, and more than 25 million acres of working land will be engaged in practices such as cover crops, no-till, and nutrient and manure management to
• 666 Forest Stand Improvement Practices cOvered:
2025 and subsequenT year praCTiCes
• 311 Alley Cropping
• 332 Contour Buffer Strips
• 380 Windbreaks/Shelterbelt Establishment and Renovation
• 386 Field Border
• 390 Riparian Herbaceous Cover
• 391 Riparian Forest Buffer
• 393 Filter Strips
• 412 Grassed Waterways
• 420 Wildlife Habitat Planting
• 422 Hedgerow Planting
• 512 Pasture and Hay Planting
• 601 Vegetative Barriers
• 603 Herbaceous Wind Barriers
• 645 Upland Wildlife Habitat Management
name a select few. The PCSC is a lauded program, and it is the job of the grant teams to help USDA reach its goals to support US farmers and contribute to a resilient future for farmers.
abouT Marbleseed’s CliMaTe-sMarT GranT
Marbleseed and its partners, who include OFARM, OEFFA, Michael Field Agriculture Institute, and TSU, were awarded a PCSC grant in late 2023. During the negotiation period with USDA, the group collaborated diligently to ensure a commitment to organic and a recognition of organic’s inherent climate-smart nature. The process to create a grant that would provide innovative solutions for a unique set of growers was met with excitement and anticipation as the team worked to incorporate shared goals into the narrative. As a result of discussions, the grant “Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain” was approved!
Although this project is robust and includes soil samples and data collection, the objectives are straightforward. Our team aims to provide direct financial support to organic grain growers and aid in climate-smart practice implementation by offering organic-specific technical assistance. Organic producers will receive $5,000 each year to implement an approved climate-smart practice and have access to a field team, field days, and conferences that will provide strategies for practice execution and success.
The partners engaged in our Climate-Smart grant have unique strengths, experiences, and knowledge that provide opportunities for cross training and collaborative work that will elevate the quality outcomes of this project. The team will continue to cater to, and shed light on, the needs of the organic farmer through Climate-Smart program events, farm incentives, and technical assistance as the project continues over the next five years.
reCruiTMenT For 2025
As the team wraps up the first year of this project, we have goals to increase the capacity of our project. We have an amazing team of organic row crop specialists who will provide enrolled producers with robust technical assistance catered to the producer’s context and goals and marketing specialists who will assist with the financial viability of extended crop rotations. If you are interested in learning more about this program for 2025 enrollment, contact our Climate and Conservation Program Manager at mercedes.talvitie@marbleseed.org or at 715-309-5918 ext. 707. See eligibility requirements below and covered practices listed in table on page 5.
eliGibiliTy requireMenTs:
• Be certified organic for the entirety of the project and have organic grain as part of rotation/farm business
• Have a farm number with the USDA-Farm Service Agency and meet Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation certification
• Cannot enroll the same field if it is already receiving federal payments for the same practice (such as through NRCS EQIP program)
• Reside in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee
We hope that you will attend one of these events, attend grain conference sessions, and, if you’re a grower, join our program!
Mercedes Talvitie is Marbleseed’s Climate and Conservation Program Manager.
FurTher resourCes:
USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. usda.gov/climate-solutions/climate-smart-commodities
with and learn from a diverse network of farmers, farmer-workers, homesteaders, and food system professionals. Join groups that match with your expertise & interests. Post and search for job opportunities, events, and classifieds.
supporTinG The CoMMerCializaTion
kernza® in wisConsin ThrouGh The
wisConsin kernza® supply Chain hub
By Steffen Mirsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, and Katherine (Kata) Young, Clean Wisconsin
Kernza® perennial grain might be a familiar name to many readers of the Organic Broadcaster by now, which is an achievement in and of itself. However, to date, there has not been a concerted effort to commercialize this new crop in Wisconsin. With the formation of the Wisconsin Kernza® Supply Chain Hub, led by the conservation non-profit Clean Wisconsin, this is changing. Together with Clean Wisconsin, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, University of Wisconsin, and Arcola Farms have partnered to help scale up production of this exciting, new, climate-friendly crop. The supply chain hub is working with farmers, processors, and food and beverage manufacturers to help develop an equitable and resilient regional supply chain that will support the adoption and utilization of Kernza® in Wisconsin.
For the uninitiated, Kernza® is the world’s first commercial perennial grain that is now cultivated on about 2,400 acres across the United States, with just over 1,000 acres in the Midwest. To some that may not seem like much but consider the historical context. In the early 1980s, Kernza® was just an idea, born from Wes Jackson’s vision for an agricultural system based on perennial crops. Perennial crops have many environmental advantages over annual crops; by providing living cover and roots in the ground
year-round, they prevent soil erosion, reduce nutrient leaching into groundwater, sequester carbon, provide wildlife habitat, and improve soil health. Jackson’s vision was the basis for the creation of The Land Institute, a non-profit organization that he founded in 1978 in Salina, Kan. with a mission to develop perennial staple crops for large scale production.
Inspired by this idea, in the early 1980s, researchers at the Rodale Institute began to search for a crop that could be bred to produce a perennial grain that could replace wheat and other annual grain crops. They settled on a perennial forage grass called intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium), native to Eurasia and grown in the western United States as a pasture grass for cattle since the early 1900s. The species was chosen because of its cold hardiness, perenniality, and the pleasant flavor of its tiny seeds. The Rodale Institute began breeding in 1982, with The Land Institute taking over breeding operations in 2001. The University of Minnesota began breeding Kernza® for the Upper Midwest in 2011, and now many other universities around the world are engaged in Kernza® research and breeding.
Today, just 40 years after breeding efforts began, three commercial varieties have been released, production has scaled to nearly 4,000 acres worldwide, and dozens of food and beverage companies, including multinational companies such as General Mills and
Patagonia Provisions, are selling over 50 different products containing Kernza®, such as pasta, beer, pancake mix, cereal, crackers, cookies, and pilaf. Kernza products can now be found on the shelves of some of the largest grocery retailers in the country. In 2022, Kernza® was named a top food trend by Whole Foods Market. Although production of annual grain still dwarfs Kernza® production, it’s important to remember that domestication efforts for wheat and barley began over 10,000 years ago, rye over 8,000 years ago, and oats 3,000 years ago.
As an insightful analogy, Lee DeHann, lead Kernza® breeder at The Land Institute, compared the development and commercialization of Kernza® to the invention of commercial aviation. In 1903, the Wright Brothers made the first sustained flight of an enginepowered aircraft with the Wright Flyer in Kitty Hawk, N.C. The first commercial flight took place 22 years later, but it wasn’t until the 1940s that commercial aviation overtook trains and boats as the preferred mode of travel. The implication is that one day, in the not-toodistant future, Kernza® may rival the productivity of wheat and other annual grains and become an attractive alternative for mainstream growers. Should that happen in the next few decades, as DeHann suggests, the magnitude of that accomplishment cannot be understated.
As breeding and research on Kernza® continues, efforts have been underway to commercialize this new crop since 2010, when the first production scale field of Kernza® was planted in Kansas. The University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative has led commercialization efforts of Kernza® in the Upper Midwest with its dedicated Commercialization and Adoption Team. Building on Forever Green Initiative’s work and supported by its talented commercialization team, the Wisconsin Kernza® Supply Chain Hub came together in 2023 to help expand Kernza® production in Wisconsin and unleash its untapped potential in our state.
The Wisconsin Kernza® Supply Chain Hub is part of a larger project led by Clean Wisconsin to develop
natural climate solutions aimed at achieving net zero emissions from agriculture by 2050. The formation of the Wisconsin Kernza® Supply Chain Hub was inspired in part by the challenges encountered by a prominent brewery in Milwaukee, Wis. in trying to source Kernza® grain to make beer. The Kernza® purchased by the brewery was grown just 30-45 minutes from Milwaukee yet had to be shipped over 1,000 miles to be aggregated in Minnesota, then to South Dakota to be cleaned and processed, and then back to Minnesota to coordinate delivery back to Milwaukee. Then, the brewery had to find a processor that could flake the grain into a form it could use for brewing. The exceedingly complex logistics and the high initial cost of the grain ($7.50/pound) would have been prohibitive for all but the most determined buyers, and we knew that Kernza® would not scale up until these supply chain issues were resolved. In addition, all the climate benefits of growing Kernza®, one of the crop’s major selling points, were negated by the emissions from transport.
To begin addressing supply chain bottlenecks in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Kernza® Supply Chain Hub is bringing together key stakeholders, including growers, processors, and buyers, to identify major challenges they face, and coordinate activities aimed at overcoming these obstacles. So far, ten existing farmers and five research stations, comprising 96.2 acres across 12 counties in Wisconsin, have been invited to participate in the project. The Wisconsin Kernza® Supply Chain Hub has created a supply and demand inventory to track acreage, management practices, certifications, predicted yields, and actual yields. The hub helped organize several farmer field days throughout the summer aimed at expanding awareness of Kernza® and its environmental benefits. Award-winning Kernza® beer and snacks were shared for tastings, and outreach materials were distributed. First-year harvests for existing growers were coordinated, post-harvest handling and storage protocols were established, and new growers were
recruited. Outreach has been conducted to brewers, and grain samples were provided to those who expressed interest in working with Kernza®. The hub is working with a participating Wisconsin grain miller to obtain the necessary equipment to process Kernza® grain, in hopes of it becoming the second commercial-scale processor equipped to process Kernza® in the state and the first in southeast Wisconsin.
By the end of August of this year, an estimated 4,000 pounds of Kernza® was harvested and is now awaiting cleaning and processing. We are already estimating a four-fold increase in yield in 2025 as first-year fields get more established and we onboard new growers. Over the coming months, the supply chain hub will be conducting roundtable discussions with Wisconsin Kernza® growers and buyers such as breweries, distilleries, and millers to discuss pricing, product specifications, and other important considerations in moving Kernza® grain forward along the supply chain.
While Kernza® is still a niche crop with many improvements that need to be made, the opportunity is ripe to start laying the groundwork for expanded adoption in Wisconsin. Commercializing new crops is a complex and difficult endeavor, and the path ahead will be strewn with obstacles, but the promise of Kernza® to help create a more sustainable, resilient, and just agricultural system motivates us to do this work. The Wisconsin Kernza® Supply Chain Hub has already made considerable progress and we have only just begun. Kernza® is on the runway to commercialization, gaining speed, and about to lift off, with wheat and other annual grains in its sight!
Steffen Mirsky, Emerging Crops Program Outreach Coordinator with UW-Madison Extension, supports the development of emerging crops throughout Wisconsin by providing educational programming and support for growers and other stakeholders. For more information on UW-Madison Extension’s Emerging Crops Program, visit cropsandsoils.extension.wisc.edu/emergingcrops/
Katherine (Kata) Young, Natural Climate Solutions Manager at Clean Wisconsin, leads the organization’s emerging work on nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and policy development to advance agricultural practices and crops that have the greatest opportunity to deliver profitably on net-zero emissions goals in Wisconsin’s agricultural sector. For more information on Clean Wisconsin’s Natural Climate Solutions Initiative, visit cleanwisconsin.org/water/ natural-climate-solutions/ncs-roadmap/
Marbleseed creates and provides access to free and low-cost farmer-led resources, farmer-tofarmer learning opportunities, and communitybuilding events that support the success of regenerative and organic farmers.
As the organic farming and food landscape continues to evolve and grow, we remain committed to the roots of this movement: care for the planet, nourishment for communities, and support for regenerative and organic farmers who are working in relationship with the ecosystems that sustain us.
Donate today to ensure regenerative and organic farmers have the tools they need to succeed.
By Jean Wiedenheft, Indian Creek Nature Center
In a week, I will embark on my fourth organic audit of Etzel Sugar Grove Farm when Midwest Organic Services Association sends an independent auditor to verify that our operation is, in fact, organic. I experience the same amount of panic and put the same amount of due diligence into each one, and the truth is, as the
process has become more familiar, it has also become, to a certain extent, easier. My binder is neatly organized with tabs. I have personally inspected every board that has come onto the property to ensure it is not green treated. Farm Manager Jared Schulz and I have set aside time between now and the audit to review everything in those binders, so we theoretically know how things were organized.
The paperwork, from writing the Organic System Plan to creating the Seed Table, is really the easiest, most straightforward part of the whole organic process. We did the bulk of the work for those last winter, putting together a planting plan, checking our rotations, talking to customers about what they might want in the upcoming year, and sourcing organic seeds. It is what happens after that magical moment, when the seeds show up full of promise and hope and healthy food and the ice melts out of the field, that the challenges of being an organic vegetable grower really emerge along with the weeds.
In 1888, Eztel Sugar Grove Farm was a diverse place. A horse team plowed the potato field. Sugar maple trees provided maple syrup. Pigs and cows provided meat. Beans and tomatoes were canned for the winter. Ice was cut from Otter Creek and stuffed in a sawdust-insulated icehouse for the summer. Chickens lived in a well-built chicken house. Trees from the wood lot were cut to heat the house.
“sTreaMlininG and MeChanizinG whaT we Can, should GiVe us More TiMe To pursue one oF The MosT rewardinG parTs oF beinG an orGaniC FarMer—enGaGinG wiTh oTher people.”
Gradually, as the generations of Etzels grew up in the house, agricultural technology shifted what was happening on the farm. In 2019, when George Etzel and his sister gifted their family farm to Indian Creek Nature Center, George was only farming two crops: Roundup Ready corn and Roundup Ready soybeans. It was a profitable business model for him and had kept the family farm intact throughout the years, but he remembered fondly when the farm had been more diverse and had high hopes that the Nature Center would maintain it as a farm while returning it to its more diverse origins.
As the Director of Land Stewardship at Indian Creek Nature Center, I understood the value of plant diversity and ecologically healthy ecosystems. Much of the land that I manage at the Nature Center and actively work to restore to healthy prairies, woodlands, and wetlands was former farmland. The challenge at Etzel Sugar Grove
Farm was exciting. How could we successfully use those same principles in a working agriculture model?
We started with an isolated 7-acre field on the farm and put in a 30-foot-wide prairie buffer with 64 species right away. The buffer has a 10-foot mow strip on either side of it, and to the west we added a weaving willow stand for additional protective height and a saleable crop that will never be consumed. To the south we recently added native wild plums, serviceberries, and buttonbushes to add protective height from the neighbor’s conventional corn and to improve the habitat for a diverse array of wildlife.
The actual crops were more challenging. Figuring out how to grow things in sandy, depleted soil and how to sell them have been ongoing challenges. We started with reading “Integrated Forest Gardening” by Mark Shepard and “Restoration Agriculture” by Daniel Halsey, Bryce Ruddock, and Wayne Weiseman. The models they articulate resonated with us. We planted a multilayered canopy with food as the primary objective. From an ecological perspective, it would recreate what works so well in a forest ecosystem. From an impatient human perspective, it’s hard to remember that the prairies that created our topsoil in the first place took thousands of years to do so and that trees can take decades to mature. In 2019, we planted chestnuts, almonds, heartnuts, paw paws, hazelnuts, persimmons, butternuts, apples, and cherries. This year, we enjoyed our first cherries, apples, and chestnuts—not enough to sell but an exciting milestone. The other big challenge in 2019 is that we lacked irrigation, which meant I was hauling 5-gallon buckets of water by hand to hundreds of trees.
Irrigation was a game changer, allowing us to ramp up our vegetable production. Because the trees range in height from 3 to 8 feet, there’s plenty of sunlight for vegetables. The time we had spent watering trees could now be spent planting, hoeing, and harvesting crops. Irrigation meant more crops could be grown.
There is nothing more lovely than on a winter day curling up with a cup of coffee and perusing the seed catalogs. Organic certification actually simplifies that process and saves a lot of time. If it’s not organic, how badly do I need it? With some of the perennial specialty fruits or asparagus crowns, we couldn’t find any certified organic seed after extensive research. But for basic lettuces, garlics, tomatoes, pumpkins, potatoes and kale, there are now several suppliers with certified organic seed varieties.
Like anyone with a background in ecological restoration, I thought the more varieties, the more diverse, and the more diverse, the better. Schulz, whose background is in large-scale organic vegetable production, brought me back to reality. He helped me develop a better understanding of what our customers want, and that will be a crucial factor in defining how diverse we should
be. For example, our current customers are interested in “kale.” Some kales get buggier than others; some grow faster than others. We would be better off, now that we know what we can grow well, to just grow one kind of kale. It simplifies the buying, the planting, the selling, the tracking, and even the audit. The same thing is true with garlic. Some of our customers have moved on to pre-peeled, already processed garlic; those that remain are less interested in the type of garlic than in the fact that it is locally grown and organic. By focusing on one kind of garlic instead of multiple varieties, we can take advantage of bulk pricing and streamlined documentation.
Schulz also has been taking a hard look at what we want to grow versus what we can grow well. After several years of trying, our sweet pepper plants are lackluster, at best. At worst, I can find them in the field by the shape of a scraggly plant, not a row of brightly colored peppers. It’s probably a problem with the soil, or the weeds, or something. But until we want to spend more time investigating that and develop a solution, we should probably cut our losses and focus on other crops and the all-pervasive weeds.
After my first audit several years ago, when the auditor and I were standing in the field surveying what was, for all intents and purposes, a 7-acre field of beautiful, flowering dandelions, I cringed. Then I came up with an ingenious solution. I added dandelions, purslane, and lamb’s quarters to our organic certificate. When we sell leafy greens and salad mixes in the spring and early summer, those can be included. It was creative, but those edible weeds were rapidly joined by things like sand burrs and thistles. I am very, very good at pulling thistle, but the thistle is also very, very good at growing.
Schulz looked at our existing weed suppression methods with a bit of exasperation: bales of organic straw for mulch, stacks of plain cardboard, and miscellaneous roles of landscaping fabric. They are valuable techniques in a backyard garden but don’t scale up easily for multiacre endeavors. We had been combining those with a lot of time hoeing with varying degrees of effectiveness. The more we can mechanize weed control, the more successful we will be. Schulz was able to use the BCS walk behind tractor, for example, to mound the potatoes, which provided us with a decent potato crop. Next year, Schulz plans to install plastic mulch with the BCS, which should cut down on our time spent hoeing and our crop losses due to weeds. He also plans to do some very shallow tilling of the asparagus, which should set the weeds back a fair bit without impacting the asparagus crowns.
Streamlining and mechanizing what we can, should give us more time to pursue one of the most rewarding parts of being an organic farmer—engaging with other people. Whether it’s a volunteer who knows a bit about pruning fruit trees, guests on a tour, or sharing samples with existing and potential customers, it’s the joy of
sharing our love of the land and the food we’re growing with other people that is key to what makes the farm successful. It might be watching someone try to explain the flavor of a ground cherry the first time they try one or savoring a freshly picked, sun-warmed strawberry. It might be helping an intern explore the pros and cons of the wheel hoe, stirrup hoe, and diamond hoe and being grateful that interns are interested. Sometimes it’s exploring other places, to see how farmers elsewhere are solving similar challenges to the ones we face.
We signed up for the Iowa Organic Association Mentorship Program, attend Practical Farmer of Iowa field days, and ask the Rodale Institute a lot of questions. I appreciate that everyone shares what they know, the challenges they are facing, or what problems remain unsolved. It’s about being a part of a multi-generational community that is focused on a deep respect for nature, creating resilient soils, and providing healthy food for people.
Jean Wiedenheft has been with Indian Creek Nature Center for more than twenty years. As the Nature Center’s Director of Land Stewardship, she also oversees Etzel Sugar Grove Farm. She was first introduced to the idea of organic farming as a twelve-year-old when her grandmother gave her a signed copy of Paul Keene’s “Fear Not to Sow Because of the Birds.”
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Forget Mars
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Getting into grazing is one of the most rewarding decisions we’ve made on our farm, but as we exited the vegetable hustle and entered the grazing game full-time, we started to understand that for every farm there is, there’s a different approach to grazing, particularly when there’s more than one species of livestock involved. For us, this led to some confusion, which meant we had to rely mainly on the powers of observation and trial and error. We attend every pasture walk we can, and we have a few reliable mentors, but when it comes down to it, the only way to improve is by starting, observing, and adjusting. In this article, I will outline a few of the main lessons we’ve learned over the past ten years as we’ve added species to our grazing operation. Currently, we graze 140 Shetland sheep, 25 bred dairy heifers, and 2,800 laying hens.
In a multi-species grazing system, it’s easy to overgraze and under-rest the pasture when the groups of animals either don’t graze the same acreage or they get too far from each other. For the purposes of this article, I’ll only write about a leader—follower system, in which livestock graze consecutively on the same acreage.
The most impactful skill to develop is keeping your various groups of animals close together. If our sheep are in a grazing cell on Monday, and then the heifers come in on Thursday, the grass will have had Tuesday and Wednesday to start recovering for the next graze. When the pasture recovery then gets interrupted by the heifers on Thursday, it gets set back and has to restart a more challenging recovery from a weaker point. It’s like a person doing an intense leg workout two days in a row instead of allowing time to recover and let the muscle repair itself. It results in more damage and less growth.
Instead, if the sheep go into a cell on Monday and the heifers go into that cell on Tuesday, then the pasture will be grazed for 48 consecutive hours and then allowed to rest, ideally for 30-45 days. To improve beyond that, the sheep could go into a cell on Monday at 7 a.m. and then the heifers come in on Monday at 2 p.m. This requires a twice-a-day move, but it shortens the total grazing period to 24 hours before the pasture begins its recovery. Adding hens to the rotation slightly complicates things because they do have an impact on the grass, but I can say with confidence that the hens in our situation make the pasture grow like wild, even through the hottest parts of summer. Ideally, the residual
grass left behind by the final group of animals should be about 6-8 inches long, whether it’s trampled or standing.
How often someone can move their animals is mostly dependent upon their schedule. Because we have a busy schedule with a full-time business and three kids, we have a hard time moving every animal more than once a day, but when we do it, we see great results. However, moving animals is the most fun part of the day and if I could do it all day, I would. Daily moves need to be a baseline for a grazing operation. Any less than that becomes a slippery slope toward continuous grazing. As I’ve written about in the past, daily habits are the easiest to keep because they are routine parts of the day. Wake up, eat breakfast, move the animals. Below, I mention a technique to ensure the sheep and heifers stay tight together, but I will admit it’s been a challenge to keep the laying hens right behind the heifers. For example, the laying hens are the only animals that rely on a tractor for movement. If the tractor dies, the hens don’t move for a day, but if they get too far behind, the pasture doesn’t have enough time to recover before the next grazing cycle happens. There are days when I’ll move the hens 400 feet, as opposed to their standard 75 feet, just to catch up. That’s a time commitment and often causes other logistical challenges.
A few tricks can make regular moves go faster and more smoothly, although every farm will have different considerations. We’ve moved toward using the sheep’s back fence as the heifers’ front fence, so the two groups share a fence, which means there are fewer fences to take down and put up each day. It also means they’re immediately next to each other. We don’t, however, do that in the spring when we have small lambs and when the wily heifers first come to our farm. The lambs are squirrely and will sneak under fences to explore as a flock of their own, and the heifers aren’t used to electric fence. It would only be a matter of time before a lamb experienced firsthand the meaning of animal impact. This is also the reason we don’t run our sheep and heifers together as a “flerd.” However, that’s a very good option for a different farm with different circumstances. We also make sure to always have the next grazing cell set up immediately after moving the animals. If we’re out there setting up the next fence when the sheep know they’re about to move, they likely won’t wait for us to take down their front fence. They love a routine, and we have to respect that. We also focus on streamlining the most labor-intensive parts of our operation. For us, that is the laying hens. We built a sliding fence we call the HenPen, which moves along with the coops, so we never have to touch poultry netting anymore. We also automated our hens’ feeding on pasture and in their winter coops. These types of improvements have allowed us to ensure that the daily move never gets skipped, which means the pasture has time to recover. And, frankly, I’ve never met an experienced farmer who enjoys poultry netting or five-gallon buckets of feed.
An important observation we’ve made over the years, and one that I now realize I’d read in Allan Savory’s writing and had to be pointed out again by a friend recently, was that animals are rarely selective based on type of plants (although they’ll avoid a few). Instead, they’re selective based on freshness. If we graze a full paddock over the course of a week and then look back at the pasture, there may be some uneaten clumps here and there. If we don’t do anything and bring the animals back on after 30-45 days, the eaten pasture will now be recovered and in a beautiful vegetative state, but those clumps of uneaten grass will have gone to seed and look stemmy and brown, a product of oxidation. If we graze through there again, we will notice that those same clumps of uneaten grass remain uneaten. Allan Savory makes the analogy to food at a buffet. If fresh food keeps getting put out each day and a few pans of stale food keep getting put out, that stale food is never going to be eaten, but the fresh stuff will. Eventually, that uneaten grass will die and create bare spots in the pasture. That’s why the magic of the relationship between animals and grass is so remarkable. The grass needs the animals in order to survive, just like the animals need the grass.
So how do we manage that uneaten grass? First of all, the more animals you have, particularly during the spring flush, and the more you can increase stocking density (think number of animals in a certain size cell—not total animals on the farm), the more grass that will get eaten and trampled. We do not have enough animals to have that full effect yet, but we do have a reliable mower. So instead of creating the herd effect, we do our best to clip our pastures once a year after the grass has gone to seed. I sometimes feel like my mower is doing the job that I have animals for, which can be defeating, but I try to keep in mind that it’s a stepping stone until we have enough animals to eliminate clipping altogether. As I mentioned before, we have 2,800 laying hens that follow the heifers. At high density, they do a surprisingly nice job of trampling and eating grass while also laying down a pad of manure. Generally, they will knock down a decent amount of the uneaten grass that then comes back vegetative and lush a few weeks later. Still, clipping pastures is on the calendar.
There is no perfect combination of animals out there. There will be some level of symbiosis from any combination of livestock, and there will generally be a few drawbacks to certain combinations. In reality, the animals included in a multi-species grazing operation need to fit the farm’s needs, the farmer’s personality and interests, and the regional market. We had grazed cattle in the past, but we weren’t fixated on beef. When the opportunity came to do custom grazing, it suited us because we could graze them all summer and send them back to their home farm in the winter, giving us a break and alleviating the need for more hay. Sheep suited us well as we developed an interest in making wool products and sheep are unintimidating to start out with. We landed on the Shetland breed basically because our neighbor is a great breeder and generous with her knowledge. The chickens came about initially because a chef asked whether we’d be interested in producing eggs for his restaurant. We didn’t waste our time reading books about specialty breeds that would do well on our farm and provide a niche product. Instead, we remained flexible and open-minded. We could have just as easily gotten into pigs instead of laying hens and the farm would be much different but not better or worse. We always started small with each enterprise and grew organically as our confidence and experience grew. There are a lot more factors to consider and nuances to navigate with 2,800 hens and 140 sheep than with 50 hens and six sheep. Organic growth allows a farm to adapt to those nuances over time.
Something that has continually come up, though, when looking into incorporating other livestock enterprises is winter production. In Wisconsin, some livestock need shelter or at least windbreaks, and all livestock need to eat. We had two different opportunities to buy beautiful beef herds, but we ultimately declined both offers because we didn’t have reliable hay storage facilities nor the resources to build them. For our hens, we decided to invest in winter coops, but before we did, our growth
was extremely limited in many ways. The sheep are adaptable and don’t need much indoor space until they’re lambing. They’ve lived in a variety of outbuildings and winter sacrifice areas throughout the years, but it’s a constant nagging thought in my mind that we will need more space soon as the enterprise grows. It’s much easier to envision a multi-species grazing operation in the summer when the grass is abundant, but most enterprises in the Upper Midwest require an entire second set of management techniques, and it’s best not to realize that as the grass stops growing, and the water lines begin to freeze.
Multi-species grazing is a rewarding, engaging, and challenging endeavor. It’s a combination of art, science, nuance, and creativity. While there are plenty of resources to help guide a farmer through their farm’s growing pains, there is nothing more powerful and unique to a farm than daily observation from the farmer.
Michael and his family own and manage Three Brothers Farm in southeastern Wis. He writes manuals and a newsletter for farmers to create profitable and enjoyable egg enterprises. 3BrothersFarmWI.com/Manuals
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hiGh Tunnel peaCh
and ouTdoor apple produCTion
down hoMe FarM
By Chris McGuire, Organic Fruit Growers Association
On July 14, I attended a field day on organic fruit production hosted by Jesse Downs and Liz Voz at Down Home Farm in Readstown, Wis. and organized by the Organic Fruit Growers Association. Jesse and Liz grow fruit at two nearby properties: at their home farm, located in a beautiful and secluded coulee bottom, where they raise peaches in two high tunnels, and on a nearby ridgetop farm, where they raise an outdoor orchard of high-density apples. They primarily sell their fruit at the Saturday farmers’ market in Viroqua, Wis. and to local chefs and processors. Down Home Farm is not certified organic, although Jesse and Liz manage the outdoor apples using organic practices. The high tunnel peaches receive some inputs, such as soluble fertilizer, that are not allowed in organic production.
The tour started with a look at the high tunnel peach plantings at the home farm. Jesse was originally inspired to grow high tunnel peaches by his own experience with high tunnel vegetable production while working at a local farm and by reading an article on high tunnel peach
production in China (see references at the end of this article). In 2013, there were approximately 40,000 acres of high tunnel peach and nectarine production in China! High tunnels are used there to promote early ripening and gain access to high-priced early season markets, but Jesse was primarily interested in using tunnels to protect peaches from winter cold and spring frosts.
Jesse and Liz currently grow peaches in two 30-foot by 72-foot-high tunnels, covered in a single layer of polyethylene greenhouse film, with 5-foot sidewalls and rollup plastic sides. The tunnels were constructed in 2012 and 2015, and both were funded through the USDA-NRCS Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). Jesse and Liz have trialed several stone fruits, including sweet cherries, apricots, and peaches, but the best successes to date have been with peaches. Their ten varieties of peaches, all grafted on standard rootstocks, ripen from late July to early October. Peaches are planted in four rows per tunnel, with 7 feet between the rows and 4.5 feet between the trees within a row. The peaches were originally planted on a trellis,
which proved to be unnecessary and was allowed to deteriorate; the trees are now freestanding.
The warm, sheltered high-tunnel environment promotes vegetative growth, and trees are therefore heavily pruned in both winter and summer. Jesse and Liz have also begun to experiment with removing every other tree to allow more space and sunlight for the trees.
A primary function of the tunnels is to protect the trees from cold—both extreme lows in winter and damaging freezes during spring bloom. In winter, the rollup plastic sides on the tunnels are left open most of the time to prevent tunnels from overheating on sunny days, which would actually de-acclimate the trees and reduce their winter hardiness. The tunnels are equipped with convection propane heaters that require no electricity and are only run when winter nighttime temperatures are expected to drop below zero degrees Fahrenheit or when bloom time temperatures are expected to be below 32 degrees. Whenever the heaters are turned on, the rollup sides are also lowered, but otherwise the sides are rolled up year round.
The soil in the high tunnels is covered with a white landscape fabric that both controls weeds and reflects light up into the tree canopies to improve fruit color. The trees are watered with a drip irrigation system that is installed under the landscape fabric. Jesse and Liz practice careful sanitation to minimize disease in the
20 NEW VARIETIES FOR 2024 INCLUDING:
tunnels, and the landscape fabric facilitates pruning and the sweeping and removal of fallen leaves.
To manage insect pests, the high tunnel sidewalls are covered with insect netting. There is also a “window” on both ends of the tunnel near the peak of the gable—an opening in the plastic film that is covered with insect netting and helps to vent off excess heat. The insect netting is a fine mesh, rated for thrips exclusion, and
it largely prevents troublesome pests such as plum curculio and stink bugs from entering the tunnels. The netting also prevents bees from entering the tunnel, which is a problem during bloom when pollination is needed. To ensure pollination, Jesse and Liz used to place bumblebee colonies purchased from Koppert inside the tunnels during bloom. In recent years, they have pulled up the sidewall netting during bloom to allow bees to enter from outside and then promptly recovered the sidewalls after bloom to exclude plum curculio.
The insect netting does not exclude some very small insect pests (and may actually encourage those pests by excluding their natural enemies). Spider mites have been problematic, but they have been controlled with releases of beneficial predatory mites. Similarly, red scale (a small, largely sedentary insect) has caused damage but has been easily controlled with releases of red scale parasite. Both beneficials can be purchased from Arbico Organics. Cherry aphids have been destructive on high tunnel tart cherries and difficult to manage.
The landscape fabric in the tunnels encourages chipmunks, who will eat peaches! Jesse and Liz control the rodents by setting out rat traps baited with peanut butter, almonds, or dog food.
Disease has not been a serious problem in the tunnels, presumably because the plastic tunnel covering keeps the foliage and fruit dry and because of the strict sanitation practices that reduce disease inoculum.
Maintaining long-term soil fertility and health in these intensively cropped high tunnels is a challenge. In the older high tunnel, growth and vigor have noticeably declined in recent years, presumably because of soil health issues. The trees are sprayed with foliar nutrients and irrigated with a soluble fertilizer (not allowed in organic production). Consistent watering with irrigation tends to lead to a buildup of salts in the soil. The plastic covering on the tunnels has never been replaced, and the plastic on the older tunnel is now twelve years old. Jesse and Liz plan to leave the plastic off for a period when they do recover the tunnels, hoping that rainwater into the high tunnels will leach salts out of the soil and that this may alleviate some of their soil health problems.
Overall, high tunnel peaches are the most profitable cash crop at Down Home Farm with minimal labor inputs. Other than harvest, the main labor requirements are for winter and summer pruning (about 3-4 days each), fruitlet thinning (about a week), and cleaning (a few days). No insect or disease sprays are required. The peaches sell at farmers market for $5 per pound, and typical yields are 1,000-2,000 pounds per tunnel per year.
Jesse and Liz are now constructing a third high tunnel where they plan to grow seedless table grapes. They hope the tunnel will provide protection from cold temperatures, diseases, and insects such as Japanese beetle, which is a major pest of grapes. They have observed that Japanese beetles avoid plants that are covered by transparent plastic even in the absence of insect netting.
The outdoor apples at Down Home Farm orchard were planted in 2016. The trees are on dwarfing rootstocks (primarily G.41), spaced 4 feet apart in rows 14 feet apart, and trained on a four-wire trellis constructed from black locust posts. The entire planting has about 1,200 trees on 1.5 acres. Trees are trained using the tall spindle system.
The main varieties in production are Honeycrisp (about 300 trees), Arkansas Black (about 200 trees), several modern scab-resistant varieties (such as Enterprise and Liberty), Honeygold, Wealthy, and numerous heirlooms. As in most orchards, Honeycrisp has proven difficult to grow. Arkansas Black has been a consistent producer for them, with flavorful, attractive fruit that store well. In retrospect, Jesse states that they should have planted more modern scab-resistant varieties and fewer of the “fun” heirlooms that have often proved susceptible to disease and difficult to grow. Among scab-resistant varieties, Jesse gave positive reviews to Enterprise (a strong, vigorous variety), Novamac, Novaspy (although
it is susceptible to cedar-apple rust), Liberty (although it is attractive to plum curculio and other insect pests), and Rubyrush (a recently released cross of Enterprise and Goldrush). Another newer scab-resistant variety, Smerelda, has proved very susceptible to cedar-apple rust. Jesse and Liz have experimented recently with heirloom varieties from the southern Appalachian region, hoping that those varieties will prove tolerant of the warm temperatures that are likely in the coming decades. So far, Keener’s Seedling, a russeted variety from North Carolina, has been particularly promising as a disease-resistant, grower-friendly tree (readers with interests in metallurgy or the garment industry may know this apple by its other name, Rusty Coat). Jesse and Liz purchased their Keener’s Seedling trees from Century Farm Orchards in North Carolina.
Disease and insect management is difficult in Upper Midwest organic apple orchards. To control apple maggot, Jesse and Liz use mass-trapping to eliminate many of the adult apple maggot flies from the orchard. They set out plastic red ball traps covered with clear plastic bags coated with Tangletrap sticky paste, with one trap per five trees on the orchard perimeter and one trap per seven trees in the interior. Trapping has proved fairly effective for control of apple maggot. Plum curculio and codling moth have been difficult to control, and some fruit damage occurs every year. Surround, Pyganic, Entrust, and Cyd-X are sprayed for control of plum curculio, codling moth, and apple maggot.
Fungal diseases, particularly apple scab, are difficult to manage in wet years such as 2024. Jesse and Liz spray Regalia and Magna-Bon for control of fire blight around bloom, elemental sulfur before likely scab infection events in spring, and alternating sprays of Serenade and Milstop during summer for control of sooty blotch, flyspeck, and fruit rots. Cedar-apple rust and fire blight both occur in their orchard but have not been major problems.
Dwarf apple trees compete poorly with weeds, and Jesse and Liz manage their orchard groundcover using the “Swiss sandwich system.” Groundcover plants are allowed to grow in the tree row, but a narrow strip is cultivated on each side of the tree row to control weeds and allow tree roots to flourish in that strip with little weed competition. Cultivation is done four to six times per year with a tractor and modified corn cultivator that drive down the aisles between rows and cultivate one side at a time. The cultivator is usually outfitted with shovels, but sometimes discs are substituted. To limit weed growth within the tree rows, Jesse and Liz weed whack two to three times per year with an electric weed trimmer, which takes about 45 minutes per 500-foot row. The Swiss sandwich system is a simpler alternative to more expensive in-row cultivators that attempt to cultivate in between trees within the same row. Some field day attendees were concerned that vegetation close to the tree trunks would encourage rodents, but rodents are not a major problem in the apple orchard at Down Home Farm, except that rabbits will chew on bark in winters when the snowpack is high.
As with their peaches, a major market for Down Home Farm’s apples is the Viroqua Farmers Market, where Jesse and Liz sell #1 grade apples for $2.50 per pound and Honeycrisp for $3.50 per pound. They also press many of their blemished apples for cider or sell the fruit to cidermakers.
This was a fantastic field day at a beautiful farm. A big thanks to Jesse and Liz for hosting the field day, generously sharing information, and helping to advance organic fruit growing in the Upper Midwest!
Chris McGuire is the coordinator at the Organic Fruit Growers Association. In addition, he and his wife Juli farm together at Blue Roof Orchard in Belmont, Wis. where they raise organic apples for their local community. Contact Chris at ofgacoordinator@gmail.com.
FurTher resourCes:
Protected Cultivation of Peach and Nectarine in China – Industry Observations and Assessments by Desmond Layne, Zhiqiang Wang, and Liang Niu. Journal of the American Pomological Society 67(1): 18-28 2013.
Growing Organic Peaches and Apricots in Central Minnesota. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PooQT-znqEY Video that demonstrates organic high tunnel peach production at Stone Creek Farm in Minnesota, including some different management practices from those described in this article.
Cheers to Organic Farming Farm-to-Table Fundraising
By Alexandria Baker, Marbleseed
Marbleseed is thrilled to “host” a distributed fundraiser throughout the Midwest this fall with a brandnew organic beer and menu item specials featuring produce from our beloved farmers at restaurants in Madison, Milwaukee, La Crosse and Minneapolis.
Thomas Manley, Marbleseed’s Climate and Conservation Director, and Dylan Bruce, farmer at Circadian Organics and Marbleseed board member, helped brew an organic beer with La Crosse Distilling Co. in September, Farmony Farmhouse Ale, that is perfect for fall sipping. Tom shared his thoughts on the collaborative farmhouse ale:
“Like certain Supreme Court Justices, I like beer. I especially like a simple farmhouse ale made with quality ingredients, and that is what we set out to
make. This style was traditionally made on farms, by farmers, for farmers using ingredients found or grown locally. It was hydration and calories to keep the work happening, particularly during harvest. It seems completely appropriate that a Marbleseed beer be from this tradition. La Crosse Distilling has been an awesome partner for years, so it is also appropriate that we brewed it there. They are committed to producing the best products and supporting organic farms close to home. Their values align with ours, and we are super grateful for the opportunity to do this together. I can’t wait to share a few with you all.”
their menu and you can taste these delectable creations through the fall season.
We brewed a beer with La Crosse Distilling Co.! Get a taste of Farmony Farmhouse Ale at the distillery this fall and proceeds will go to support our work to build a thriving organic and regenerative farming movement across the Midwest!
Plus, dine for a cause! La Crosse Distilling Co. (La Crosse), Ahan (Madison), Amilinda (Milwaukee), or Marty’s Deli (Minneapolis) are featuring dishes with organic squash from local farms, with proceeds supporting Marbleseed! Huge thanks to the farmers at Steadfast Acres, Squashington Farm, Stubborn Oak Farmstead, Forest Farm, Philly Farm, and Big River Farms for growing the incredible produce! Follow the QR code below to learn more!
You can sample this delicious brew at La Crosse Distilling through the autumn months and proceeds will go to Marbleseed. Additionally, La Crosse Distilling will be featuring fall/winter squash from Circadian Organics and Dropseed Farm on
You can also support Marbleseed’s work during the month of October and November by dining at Ahan restaurant in Madison, Wis., Amilinda restaurant in Milwaukee, Wis., or Marty’s Deli in Minneapolis, Minn. These three amazing restaurants will be running menu specials featuring fall and winter squash from organic farmers across Wisconsin and Minnesota.
A big thank you to Steadfast Acres, Squashington Farm, Philadelphia Community Farm Forest Farms, Stubborn Oak Farmstead, and Big River Farms for providing the beautiful produce for these menus. More info and menu details will be added to our Cheers to Organic Farming event webpage.
Proceeds from the distributed fundraiser support Marbleseed’s programming and events such
as our longstanding Farmer-to-Farmer Mentorship Program, on-farm Organic Field Days, the Ag Solidarity Network, our forthcoming 36th Organic Farming Conference, and farming resources such as our quarterly Organic Broadcaster magazine, our robust website, and our blog. Our programming fosters farmer-to-farmer engagement through farmer-led events and provides relevant and timely resources for the organic farming community to both strengthen our current sustainable farming movement and empower the next generation of organic farmers.
To a bountiful harvest.
Cheers!
Alexandria Baker is the Development and Communications Director at Marbleseed.
Identical potting mixes with identical fertilizer rates: Suståne 8-4-4 produced healthier, fasterestablished transplants than other organics. Slow-release nitrogen plus the nutrients and beneficial microbiology provides healthier starts for nearly all crops in all types of growing media.
[This trial used standard 95:5 Coir-Perlite potting media. Mix rate: 0.6 lb. N per cubic yard
Suståne 8-4-4 at 0.6 N / cu. yd.
Suståne 8-4-4 at 0.6 N / cu. yd.
Scarlet Globe Radish: 28 days after seeding (DAS). Same nitrogen rate applied.
Celebrity Tomato: 28 days after seeding (DAS). Same nitrogen rate applied.
Tomato and Radish Seedlings - Pat2h Horticultural Research Center
Suståne 8-4-4 = 7.5 lb. Suståne per cubic yard.]
MenTorship proGraMs aT Marbleseed GrowinG ToGeTher:
By Tay Fatke, Marbleseed
Farmer Led—Rooted in Organic. The tagline for our organization perfectly sums up much of our programming here at Marbleseed, and that especially rings true about the mentorship programs we offer. Through mentorship, seasoned farmers share their expertise and experiences and guide their mentees through the challenges, successes, and long hours of farming. Our mentorship programming empowers farmers through one-on-one guidance as they grow their business, seek organic certification, add farm enterprises, hone production skills, balance farm and family, and more.
MenTorship For beGinninG FarMers
Marbleseed has two mentorship programs to help navigate the complexities of operating a farm business. Using Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) funding, we connect beginning farmers with mentors to learn best practices for their type of farming operation. The USDA considers anyone who has operated a farm or ranch for less than ten years to be a beginning farmer or rancher. Mentored farmers may have specific goals they are seeking like adding a new crop into the rotation, reducing tillage, increasing the finished weight of their livestock, or how to better manage the financial side of their business. Mentees may also be simply looking to improve all facets of their operation, in which the specific goals will come further down the line once they meet with their mentor. Mentorships through our BFRDP program are available in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Mentee farmers applying to the program must have been operating their farm business for at least one year prior to application date. We have found that farmers at this stage have more experience with basic farming issues and know where they need guidance. Mentee farmers pay $350 to participate in the program, which includes admission to the Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference in 2025 and 2026. Mentors also receive admission to the Organic Farming Conference as well as a travel stipend to attend. Applications are now open for the 2025 Mentorship Program. Accepted applicants will be notified in December 2024. See Further Resources at the end of this article for more information and to apply.
MenTorship For orGaniC CerTiFiCaTion
Though this is Marbleseed’s 17th year matching mentorship pairs, recently we started an incredible partnership with the Transition to Organic Partnership
Program (TOPP)—a network assembled by the USDA’s National Organic Program to support transitioning and organic producers with mentorship and resources. Through the TOPP mentorship program, we find mentors for farmers who are actively pursuing organic certification, either for the first time or for those who are adding a new scope to their business such as adding livestock or processing and handling. The program allows mentees to learn through the guidance of an experienced organic producer, navigate the transition and certification process, and receive free expert advice and guidance on organic best practices. So often we hear from farmers that pursuing organic certification is daunting, confusing, and simply takes too much time. Mentorship through the TOPP program alleviates these issues and sets the farmer up for success when pursuing organic certification. Applicants looking to be mentored may already be in transition and working with a certification agency or they may be farming conventionally and looking to start their transition process. Marbleseed works with mentorship pairs in Wisconsin and Indiana while the remaining states in our region are covered by other partners in the Midwest region. There is no cost for mentees in the TOPP mentorship program, and mentees receive travel and education stipends up to a specific limit. Mentors must have at least three years of experience with organic production and certification, a strong understanding of the organic rules and regulations, and an interest in sharing knowledge and giving back to the organic community. Mentor farmers receive a $3,000 stipend for each mentorship year in which they participate.
Interested in learning more about organic certification? Check out Marbleseed’s updated factsheet on steps to certification and tips for choosing a certifier in the Further Resources section at the end of this article!
GrowinG ToGeTher
Over the past year I have been able to see the great importance these mentorship programs have. The mentees gain valuable knowledge and insights, and they have a sounding board in their mentors. Thanks to these programs we have a producer transitioning their hightunnel raspberries to organic. We have individuals who finish their careers, start farms, and are able to set them up with success right from the start. We have farmers learning, adjusting, and implementing practices so they can continue to farm for the long haul. It was a pleasure to be at the mentorship meeting during the Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference last February to see the energy amongst all the pairs. I recall feeling in that
moment that this is why the organic farming movement has strong roots. From early on, organic farmers have banded together and shared their expertise, wisdom, and lots of caffeine together. It’s continuing with that tradition that will grow organic agriculture. Let’s do it together.
Tay Fatke is Marbleseed’s Farmer Education Manager.
Organic Certification & Tips for Choosing a Certifier
Certification is the process that verifies the production practices of organic food and fiber. All organically labeled agricultural products sold in the U.S. must meet United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations for organic production. You can choose to certify only a portion of your production, such as one of your fields or some of your livestock, as long as the non-organic production is separated from the organic. All feeds for organic livestock must be certified organic.
Farmers who sell less than $5,000 per year of unprocessed, directto-consumer produce and follow organic standards are exempt from the certification requirement. If you meet these requirements, you may label your products “organic” but cannot use the USDA Organic Seal or claim to be certified organic.
Organic certification requires an application, inspection, and review process with an organic certification agency. You cannot sell your crop/livestock as certified organic until you receive your certificate at the end of the process.
stePs tO certiFicatiOn
Document Your Land Use
To be eligible for organic production, land must be free from prohibited inputs for 36 months before your first organic harvest. You need to list the last date that prohibited materials were used in each field to be included in your organic certification. If you can document that no prohibited inputs were applied for the past three years, the land is ready for organic production. If you didn’t manage the land in that period, ask the previous manager to provide dates of material applications or to sign an affidavit stating that no prohibited materials were used during that time.
Choose a Certifier
There are many pathways for finding and choosing a certifying agency. See the section “Tips for Choosing a Certifier” in this factsheet for instructions on finding certification listings on the Marbleseed website and examples of questions you can ask to narrow your search.
Once you choose a certifier, the agency will send you an initial packet with the National Organic Standards, blank copies of forms, and an Organic System Plan (OSP) application for certification for that crop year.
Apply for Certification
You must complete an application for certification in the year you plan to sell an organic crop. You need to fill out an OSP for each scope you want certified (e.g., crops, livestock, handling/processing, wild crop). Certifiers also require additional OSPs for greenhouse, maple syrup, and some other forms of production.
On the OSP form, describe your farm’s activities, including your plans for soil fertility, crop rotation, controlling weeds and insects, inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, seed treatments, etc.), harvest, storage, and
sales. Each field needs a three-year history of input use, map, and plan for the current year’s production.
Once you complete all the information, submit your application and the initial fee to the certification agency within the time frame requested. The first-year application takes more time both for you and for your certifier. Begin the process three to six months before you plan to harvest organic crops. That way you won’t incur late fees or charges to expedite your application.
The agency reviews your application and contacts you if they need additional documentation. You can supply some information, such as seed-purchase records, at the time of your inspection.
Complete an Inspection
Your certification agency assigns an inspector to do an inspection of your farm. Before that date, get your records to shorten the time needed for the inspection and reduce your costs. The inspection takes two to five hours, depending on how organized you are and how complex your operation is. Farms with livestock or on-farm processing (e.g., seed cleaning) may take longer. Your inspector reviews your records and tours your fields, equipment, and crop storage areas.
Receive Determination on Organic Status
The inspector sends a report to the certification agency along with documents collected during the inspection. You receive the report too and can comment if anything is incorrect.
The agency sends you a determination letter to let you know if they intend to certify your operation. This letter may contain “conditions for continued certification.” These are areas the reviewer identified that should be improved. If your farm has more serious compliance issues, you may receive a notice of noncompliance. These issues can usually be resolved if you have not willfully violated the standards or lied about your operation.
Your organic certificate can accompany the determination letter or arrive separately. This certificate remains in effect until surrendered, suspended, or revoked. You may now sell the organic products listed on your certificate.
Keep Records for Annual Inspection
Maintain records documenting all crop production activities and inputs, storage, and sales for your next annual inspection. There is no specific mandate on the system you use—it can be in notebooks, paper files, or electronic. Your records need to becomplete and clear enough to be understood even when you are not present.
You must submit a renewal application annually. If you decide to discontinue your organic certification, you should contact your agency and surrender your organic certificate. If you do not do this and you do not submit your annual renewal, the agency will begin the process to revoke your certification. This revocation will be part of your
permanent file and will complicate subsequent organic certification. Voluntarily surrendered certifications can be restarted at any time.
Apply for a Cost-Share Rebate
You may apply for reimbursement for certification-related expenses and receive a rebate up to 75 percent or $750 per scope of certification. Funding for this popular program comes from the federal government through the USDA National Organic Program and, depending on where you live, is administered by either your state department of agriculture or your county Farm Service Agency (FSA) office. Contact your county FSA office or state ag department to request an application.
Prepare for Residue Tests & Unannounced Inspections
The USDA requires certifiers to perform residue tests and unannounced inspections on a portion of the operations they certify each year. Most of these are randomly assigned, but they can also be in response to a concern identified through the annual review process or a complaint received by the certifier. Your inspector may take a sample of harvested crops or directly from the field. The samples are then tested for a wide range of prohibited chemicals.
Know the Strengthening Organic Enforcement Rule
The Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) rule was published January 2023 with an implementation date of March 19, 2024. The SOE rule reduces fraud in the organic marketplace; strengthens oversight of organic producers, handlers, and certifiers; and improves USDA’s enforcement mechanisms. The rule also protects organic integrity and bolsters farmer and consumer confidence in the USDA organic seal by supporting strong organic control systems, improving farm to market traceability, increasing import oversight authority, and providing robust enforcement of the organic regulations.
tiPs FOr chOOsing
a certiFier
There are many USDA-accredited certification agencies. See example questions and considerations below to help you find a certifier that suits your operation and visit Marbleseed’s website at marbleseed.org/ resources/organic-resource-directory and search “certification agency” to review listings.
Talk to certifying agencies:
Do you certify operations of my type?
An agency familiar with your type of production is more likely to have practical interpretations of the standards to follow.
Do you certify other farms in my region?
Some agencies only certify operations in specific regions or states. Once you know that the agency certifies in your region, you should try to find one with inspectors in your area. One of the factors in the cost of certification is how far the inspector has to travel. Inspectors sometimes visit many farms on the same trip so that the cost is shared between producers, but you are more likely to keep the cost
down if your inspector lives relatively close. Since most inspectors contract with more than one certifier, you have options.
What are your fees for certification?
Make sure you have a clear picture of all the costs before you apply. Many certifiers list fee schedules. Certifiers may charge flat rates based on scope of certification or base fees on your gross organic sales. Inspection fees can vary from year to year, so you should ask how they are calculated. There may be an extra “membership” or “administrative” fee. Some charge a fee to review new inputs and others factor this into the overall cost of certification.
How quick is your certification process?
If you are scheduled to sell organic milk by a certain date, wish to sell your corn crop out of the field, or have early spinach to sell, make sure the agency can complete the process in your timeframe, so you are legally able to sell your product as organic when it is ready. They may have an additional fee for expedited service.
Do you have other certification services?
You may also need other services like Regenerative Organic Certification, GAP certification, or grass-fed verification. Check to see if the agency handles other third-party verifications that you may require.
Talk to farmers in your area:
• Are you happy with the service you received?
• Does someone answer the phone or return calls promptly?
• Does the agency help you with the certification process?
• Does it provide useful recordkeeping forms for farmers to use?
• Does it have a newsletter about new production methods or changes in the marketplace or government regulations?
• Does the agency offer educational activities or field days?
• Are policies and materials easy to understand and use?
• How long did you wait for the inspection to occur, the file to be reviewed, and the certificate to be issued?
Talk to your buyers:
Check with your buyers to see if they have preferred certification agencies. If a buyer wants your organic product to be approved for sale to foreign countries, there may be special inspection or production requirements.
cOntact us Or visit Our Website!
If you have more questions about certification or organic rules, call the Marbleseed Organic Answer Line at 888-906-6737 ext. 1 or email specialist@marbleseed.org. You can also find many resources on our Marbleseed website and request free copies of select publications online at marbleseed.org/resources/organic-resource-directory.
the transitiOn tO Organic PartnershiP PrOgraM can helP!
Through the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP), you can apply for a mentorship program to learn through the guidance of an experienced organic producer. The TOPP mentorship program will help you set goals, navigate the transition and certification process, get expert advice and guidance on organic best practices and certification, and receive support to write an OSP. If a mentorship pairing isn’t the right fit, you can also sign up for technical assistance to work 1:1 with a service provider to develop your OSP, learn how to create and maintain a successful recordkeeping system, receive help with preparing for your first inspection, and understand how your operation can meet the organic regulations. Learn more about offerings through TOPP at organictransition.org.
This factsheet is supported through the USDA Transition to Organic Partnership Program, a program of the USDA Organic Transition Initiative administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service National Organic Program.
“If lovingly and painstakingly cared for, you will see, that [the] farm will heal its own wounds to produce more bounty and diversity than ever before, and you yourself might be healed too along the way.” - Gary Paul Nabhan
“Letters to a Young Farmer” was created by Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture as a collection of letters written by 38 of the most influential farmers, writers, and chefs of our time. They were asked the question, “What would you say to young farmers who are setting out to farm now?” In these letters, they offer wisdom, advice, and inspiration for young farmers. This quote from Gary Nabhan summarizes main themes discussed by many authors from this book: “Farming is not for the faint of heart, it will create more beauty than you ever thought possible, and through it all you will be changed.”
I am a 24-year-old farmworker who is completing my second season as an apprentice to be an organic vegetable farm manager. While I have been involved in farming from a young age, only recently have I committed to farming as my future. I graduated from university two years ago and was lost as to what my next step would be. I had always been fascinated by smallscale vegetable farming but wasn’t sure if that was an “acceptable” path forward for myself. As Barbara Kingsolver discusses in her letter, in the latter half of the twentieth century, the message was to leave the farm, go to school and get a respectable desk job indoors. “The subtext of this message is that manual labor is degrading, and that soil is, well, dirty.” As I was exploring my job options after graduation, I was also told by an adult in my life that “you have a college degree,
FarMers are MeChaniCs, ManaGers, aCCounTanTs, web desiGners, bioloGisTs, and so MuCh More.
don’t do manual labor.” Again and again throughout this book, the letters push back against this narrative. Kingsolver goes on to state, “Your vocation is creative, necessary, and intellectually demanding.” Farmers are mechanics, managers, accountants, web designers, biologists, and so much more. The narrative that farming isn’t an acceptable field to go into has slowly been shifting, and we can see the effects of that as more young people like myself are getting into farming. As we all know, you need a farmer at least three times a day.
Over and over again in this book I was in awe of the beauty of life on the farm. Karen Washington advises to “listen closely to the beating of your heart, the rhythmic patterns of breathing, the tingling in your hands as they reach deep, deep into the soil.” Farmers speak often of the beautiful connection farming builds between you and the natural world. From listening to birds chirp as you work in the field to helping bring new life into this earth, farming connects you to the seasons and cycles of nature. Many farmers speak of it as a spiritual endeavor. “Communion with the soil, animals, and plants is invigorating, inspiring, and spiritually uplifting,” according to Mary-Howell Martens. Farmers also describe the beauty of feeding others and the joy of providing healthy delicious food to people in their community. Anna Lappé states, “When I get unsettled
about the future, I need only think about the millions of people who wake up before the sun to dig their hands in the dirt to provide for the rest of us - and I experience that reverence anew.” It is a radical act of collective care to feed those in your community—something the industrial food system has not only discouraged but destroyed.
The main message I saw throughout this book time and time again was the power and necessity of community. As Wendy Millet states, “The future of food will be collaboration, not specialization.” A huge resource for young farmers is to connect with elder farmers— farmers who have gone through years of the same struggles you are experiencing and survived, who pioneered and started the farmto-table movement and got things like CSAs and farmers markets into the mainstream. They have years of wisdom and experience to share. The late Amigo Bob Cantisano advocates for young farmers to create community with their neighbors, stating, “Look to your neighboring farmers as allies working toward the common good, rather than competitors.” As we all know, farming is not an easy endeavor. Share meals, tools, and knowledge with those who are going through this endeavor alongside you. As someone just entering the organic farming movement, I have been surprised and inspired by the strength of the community of
farmers around me willing to answer questions and offer a helping hand.
While the authors of this book shared the joys of farming, they also wrote of the hard truths. Mary Berry shares a “general reluctance to encourage you to take up what I know to be an incredibly difficult, demanding, and sometimes heartbreaking way to make a living, if you can indeed make a living farming.” The hard economic realities make it difficult for young farmers to get into farming and stay in it. While CSAs and farmers markets have become more mainstream, they have yet to change our food system in any significant way. The majority of people’s food still comes from supermarkets. The climate crisis we are facing has only made farming more difficult. From longer periods of drought to more intense rains, farming has only become more of an unpredictable way to make a living. As Gary Paul Nabhan states, farming “does not make much economic, social or political sense at all.” However, “you will get paid in being up for drop-dead gorgeous dawns, in seeing trembling creatures give birth, in seeing fruit trees break bud into a bounty of blossoms, and in feeling depleted soil heal into fertility once more.”
When picking up this book, I was expecting a lot of practical advice from farmers, which was readily available. From conducting gross-margin analysis to the importance of direct marketing, I received a lot of practical tips for my future in farming. However, what I was pleasantly surprised about was how many farmers were diving into farming as activism. In her letter, Chellie Pingree focuses on “the importance of the political act of being a young farmer.” Personally, this is what excites me most and has drawn me into farming. Choosing to farm sustainably and connect to the land is a radical act going against what society has been pushing for years. Young farmers are seeing the connection between our current industrialized food system and the degrading health of the people and planet. They are standing up to say no more. As Marion Nestle tells young farmers, “The very existence of your farm and your ways of farming make a political statement.”
While many authors discussed farming as a way to move forward societal change, only a small handful of authors
mention decolonizing agriculture and creating space for people of color in farming. As Raj Patel states, “If you have title to the ground in which you stand, you traffic in stolen goods.” I wish this had been acknowledged by more farmers throughout this book. Patel goes on to discuss how we need to farm both for the future and to restitute for yesterday. Very few authors in this book mention the culture of white supremacy and harm created by agriculture in our country’s past and present. As a white farmer, I am working to educate myself on this harmful history. The next book I plan to read is “Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land” by Leah Penniman, and I encourage all the readers who have benefited from white supremacy to join me in this.
Finishing this book, I am walking away feeling truly inspired as well as apprehensive of what we are up against. It is up to me and my generation of farmers to continue the great work of our elders and to fight against the destruction that our industrialized agricultural system has caused. We must acknowledge and atone for the stolen land we farm on and the exploitation of people of color in the agriculture industry. We have a future full of beauty intertwined with heart-breaking challenges as we create a better future for ourselves and the land.
Marit (she/her) is a farmworker completing her second season as apprentice to become an organic vegetable farm manager in Madison, Wis.
how To inClude More CoVer Crops in your roTaTion
By Kaleb Ortner, Marbleseed
As a new staff member writing my first article for the Organic Broadcaster, I wanted to introduce myself and give the readers a little background about myself and my experiences in farming. I have only been farming organic row crops for a few years, but I have had a long relationship with agriculture, leading me down a path to get here today. As a kid, I remember being fascinated with my grandpa working the ground, planting and managing his crop all summer, and waiting for the day the combine would be pulled out of the shed in hopes that I could hitch a ride. I did not fully understand what was happening then, but I was always curious how such a tiny seed could grow into a big, bushy plant. As I grew older, I learned how plants grew in school and how farmers cared for them to grow food. However, I wasn’t satisfied with the basics, so I studied further at Michigan State University (MSU). There, I learned the finer details of photosynthesis and management
practices, but where I found my true passion was in the soil. Putting everything together to build this system to grow food excited me and I wanted more. In further research, I discovered biological farming and the importance of feeding biology, which later led me to organic farming. After several discussions with neighbors and professors, I decided it was time I put this into practice as I started my farming career. Some professors and family members helped me decide that I shouldn’t give up on school yet but instead continue to study these topics further and build my system with the inclusion of cover crops. For the final two years at MSU, I pursued my master’s degree in organic transition with the inclusion of interseeded cover crops to expand the growing season.
If you have been farming for a long time, you probably have heard the importance of cover crops and their role in improving and keeping your soil on your farm. For the readers just starting their farm, regardless of size, I encourage you to study
this topic. For a quick overview, cover crops have several benefits for the environment and crop improvement. When someone asks me about cover crops, I like to promote a few main topics. The first is improving soil health by increasing carbon in the soil to feed the biology and increase soil organic matter. This is important as higher amounts of soil organic matter increase the amount of water and nutrients our soils can hold; in turn, we see improved crop uptake and yield. Secondly, legume cover crops can have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria to fix nitrogen for plant uptake, leaving additional excess nitrogen for crop uptake after termination. The last key point is how they can be used to reduce both wind and water erosion. If the ground is covered, we decrease the amount of exposed soil that can be moved by the wind and displaced during precipitation. These are just a few points—farmers may be interested in several other benefits, including how cover crops can
be used to manage weeds, compaction, and nutrient scavenging.
Now that we know some of the benefits and have decided that cover crops are suitable for our farm, we must figure out how to achieve our goals. We might ask some of the following questions: What species do I plant? What seeding rate? How to plant? When to plant? These answers can be found with a quick internet search or by exploring resources, including an excellent pocket guide, from the Midwest Cover Crop Council (see Further Resources at the end of this article). Neighbors and crop consultants can also give valuable tips based on their experiences and knowledge.
You may be asking what to do when the unexpected happens and you don’t have perfect conditions like those mentioned in the resources? Should you just give up and try again next year? Weather patterns are becoming increasingly unpredictable, and if one waits for perfect conditions, cover crops may never get planted. Do you have a plan B? What options do you have if you cannot complete a task before the weather turns? I hope to give you some plan B options in this article.
The first thing to consider when developing plan B is your current cash crop rotation. I mentioned above some of the benefits that cover crops can give, but you can’t reap these benefits if you go bankrupt. I might alter my plans slightly to include cover crops on my farm, but at the end of the day, my cash crops will pay the bills. Once I know my intended cash crop, I must consider my target planting date that then determines the time window for planting cover crops. A great free resource for answering some of these questions is the Midwest Cover Crop Council’s Selector tools (see Further Resources section at the end of the article). This is my first stop when deciding which species to use and when and how to plant them. You can select what species will work with your planting window and set goals to pick the best species for the specific crop. If you plan to plant a bean crop at the end of May next year, for example, you can enter that along with some soil information and your goal(s), and the system will show you available cover crops and best planting dates that can help meet your goal(s). If we were to do this for Tuscola County, Mich., we would see several cover crop options to plant next spring before our cash crop.
Using this tool on my farm gave me the idea of planting oats and field peas before my black bean cash crop. The fall of 2021 was a late wet harvest, in which we finished at the end of November. In the spring I was unable to get chicken litter due to a manure shortage, so when I set my goals, I was looking for a cover crop that would be a nitrogen source, a nitrogen scavenger, and have quick growth in the spring. We typically get a stretch of weather in Michigan from late March to mid-April when we can get in the fields. In 2022, that stretch was the last week of April. Later than I planned but still early enough
to be effective, I planted a 50/50 blend of oats and field peas by weight. In one month, the oats and peas were knee-high, and I could incorporate this residue into my soil and plant a week later in the first week of June.
If there is consistently not enough time in the fall or you have too short of a growing season to plant a cover crop in your system, consider interseeding. The most common form of this in Michigan is frost-seeded clover in small grains. In March, when the ground starts to thaw during the day and freeze at night, you can spread the seed and allow it to work itself in and grow under the small grain canopy without adversely affecting yield. After harvesting the small grain, you are left with an excellent clover stand. Some of these clover cover crops produce over 40 pounds of nitrogen, which the following crop can utilize. Another interseeding option is applying cover crop seed with a drone or airplane while the cash crop is senescing; with a bit of rain, you can have an established cover crop in your growing cash crop. Finally, my favorite option is corn interseeding before the last cultivation. There are specialized tools to do this, but success can be achieved by simply spreading the seed through a spreader and incorporating it with the row crop cultivator.
Don’t be discouraged when it comes to cover crops. They are versatile tools that can be adapted to any system. Above all else, remember to be flexible. You can have the perfect plan, but the one thing you can’t control is the weather. You don’t need to have plan B planned out ahead of time, but if plan A fails, know your resources and use them. Your local extension educators, neighbors, crop consultants, or the NRCS office are great starting points if you need help knowing where to go.
Kaleb Ortner is the new Organic Agronomy Specialist at Marbleseed. Kaleb is providing technical assistance for the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP) and the Climate-Smart Commodities program.
FurTher resourCes:
Midwest Cover Crops Council Field Guide and other resources. https://www.midwestcovercrops.org/otherresources/
Midwest Cover Crops Council Selector Tools. https:// www.midwestcovercrops.org/selector-tools/
STaFF q&a
sara Mooney
(eventually), it also improved habitat for generations to come.
Building and operating a community hydroponic greenhouse created a strong community resource. Providing community members living with disabilities the opportunity to work in a safe space creating great food had a positive impact on so many peoples’ lives, my own included.
whaT Trends do you see eMerGinG in The orGaniC aGriCulTure seCTor?
whaT inspired you To pursue a Career in aGriCulTure?
Always an outdoorsy nerd, I studied conservation biology in college and naturally, after college, went to work in the horse industry. On the horse farms I managed, I always had access to a large garden space and ample composted manure. Growing on borrowed space got me thinking about a long-term relationship on the land. By the time our son was born, the urge to be on and of the land was undeniable, and my husband and I bought a ramshackle farm in southwest Wisconsin. We dove in like young fools in love.
Can you share your FarMinG baCkGround? whaT roles haVe you held in The pasT, and whaT are your CurrenT responsibiliTies?
On our family farm, I managed a flock of sheep on roughly 50 acres of rotationally grazed pasture. I had a market garden that shrank in direct proportion to the growth of the sheep flock. Farmer’s market was gradually replaced with direct-to-consumer marketing of our grass-fed lambs. Being a naïve (read: poor) modern startup farmer, I also worked off the farm in a conventional ag seed business and, later, operating a commercial hydroponic greenhouse. While I’ve returned to the role of gardener in my personal life, I am inspired
by working on the Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) program. I’m lucky to be helping so
Can you share soMe suCCess sTories or iMpaCTFul projeCTs you’Ve been a parT oF?
Returning a long-abused corn and bean operation to pasture and hay and restoring the eroded streambanks on our farm, in collaboration with the NRCS and Trout Unlimited, was transformational for the land. Our work not only created a family identity and financial security
I’m excited about urban agriculture as part of urban revitalization and community building. I feel like initiatives that return food production to local communities have the capacity to repair and heal people, land, and civility. On the flip side, I worry about the trend toward large-scale organic operations and the one-size-fits-all regulatory framework being created to oversee ers supporT beyond jusT CTs?
Vote! Vote in local elections where your vote has a more immediate impact on your life. Write to your representatives at the local, state, and federal levels and explain why they should support organic initiatives (and good farm policy in
Goals
My current goal is to start a micro farm in town. I want to feed friends and neighbors year round.
whaT’s your FaVoriTe loCally produCed Food To eaT?
Everything in season, especially strawberries, wild mushrooms, and old fashioned, seedy watermelon.
Sara Mooney is a Marbleseed Local Food Purchasing Specialist based in southwest Wis..
Cheers to Organic Farming
Farm-to-Table Fundraising
We brewed a beer with La Crosse Distilling Co.! Get a taste of Farmony Farmhouse Ale at the distillery this fall and proceeds will go to support our work to build a thriving organic and regenerative farming movement across the Midwest!
Plus, dine for a cause! La Crosse Distilling Co. (La Crosse), Ahan (Madison), Amilinda (Milwaukee), or Marty’s Deli (Minneapolis) are featuring dishes with organic squash from local farms, with proceeds supporting Marbleseed! Huge thanks to the farmers at Steadfast Acres, Squashington Farm, Stubborn Oak Farmstead, Forest Farm, Philly Farm, and Big River Farms for growing the incredible produce! Follow the QR code below to learn more!
in plaCe
now,
leT’s TransiTion soMe aCres!
By Tom Manley, Marbleseed
The world of organic farming is a dynamic and ever shifting landscape. Things are constantly in flux, from prices to the adoption of new rules and standards, and there is a lot to pay attention to. One of the more exciting and promising developments of the last couple of years is the Organic Transition Initiative (OTI). Although the roll out of the program has not been without some hiccups, it is safe to say it represents the most significant support for organic farming we have ever seen from the USDA.
There are several components to OTI, including market development efforts, crop insurance improvements, and mentorship opportunities through the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). These are all important pieces of this puzzle, but much of the excitement around OTI centers on the additional support available to producers through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The OTI has directed $70 million dollars to provide
technical and financial assistance to producers and an additional $5 million to strengthen organic expertise for conservation program assistance, disseminate the latest in organic research, and provide training to NRCS staff nationally. These training efforts are one of the last pieces of OTI and are led by Oregon Tilth and the Organic Farming Research Foundation, with partners including Marbleseed, California Certified Organic Farmers, and the Organic Agronomy Training Service. The organizations are working together now to onboard six Organic Assistance Specialists and one Organic Research Specialist with the primary goal of increasing conservation planning and implementation on organic and transitioning to organic farms to address resource concerns. More specifically, the program seeks to:
• Improve NRCS staff knowledge of organic systems.
• Ensure NRCS staff are receptive to organic producers and see opportunities to work with them.
• Prepare more TSPs to work on transition to organic plans.
• Make organic and transitioning producers aware of NRCS support.
• Aid organic and transitioning producers in receiving Conservation Technical Assistance and programmatic support from NRCS.
• Ensure organic certifiers and organizations are aware of and promoting NRCS assistance.
• Help Historically Underserved and Socially Disadvantaged organic and transitioning producers to successfully access assistance from NRCS.
• Coordinate NRCS support with USDA TOPP.
• Create training on the new NRCS Conservation Practice Standard (CPS) for Organic Management, CPS 823.
• Streamline the link between NRCS and organic certification paperwork.
It should not be surprising that there is such an emphasis on conservation assistance in OTI. Conservation is baked into the organic cake and all The pieCes oF The orGaniC TransiTion iniTiaTiVe are Finally
always has been. In fact, the national organic regulations tell us that as organic farmers we are obligated and required to protect and improve the natural resources on our farms. Organic production is defined as a production system that is managed to respond to sitespecific conditions by integrating cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. The National Organic Program Handbook updates for 2024 include a guidance document that goes into some detail on natural resources and biodiversity conservation (see Further Resources at the end of this article). Organic and transitioning farmers have an important ally in the NRCS; agency staff can help farmers meet their regulatory obligation, improve their operations, and in many cases help them get financial assistance to make it all possible. Marbleseed is very excited to be a part of this project that will improve access to and utilization of NRCS programs.
There has been some confusion, misunderstanding, and disappointment in the last several months as producers have tried to get information about and access to the technical and financial assistance available as part of OTI, particularly as it relates to the NRCS CPS 823. The work of the new Organic Assistance Specialists should go a long way toward improving access and understanding. In the interim, if you have any questions about conservation planning or opportunities for support through NRCS, please don’t hesitate to call the Marbleseed Organic Answer Line at 888-906-6737 ext. 1. We will be happy to help you as you explore all the conservation opportunities on your farm. Keep your eye on upcoming issues of the Organic Broadcaster as we will be doing deeper dives into specific conservation practices and highlighting farms that have implemented them, and don’t hesitate to visit your local NRCS service center. They are staffed with folks who care about the outcomes on your farm and are there to help. Start the conversation—the sooner is better. Do it for the resources!
Tom Manley is Marbleseed’s Climate and Conservation Director.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number FBC24CPT0013866.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, any reference to specific brands or types of products or services does not constitute or imply an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for those products or services.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
NRCS Find Your Local Service Center. nrcs.usda.gov/ contact/find-a-service-center
reMeMberinG john naVazio
By Matt Dillon, Organic Trade Association
On June 1, in the early morning hours, Dr. John Navazio left the field, and yet his legacy will live on season after season in the harvests of countless gardeners and farmers and in the hearts of all those he inspired and loved. We are many, including attendees of the annual Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference, where he not only taught and shared knowledge but also shared his passion for music with his band The Pheromones.
A plant breeder by training, John was a born teacher and shared his knowledge and experience with generosity and passion. Curiosity was his measuring stick of a person’s character; if they didn’t have it, he tried to inspire it. Over the last few months since his passing, I’ve talked to dozens of farmers, plant breeders, and other seed professionals, and the words they used to describe John were more uniform than any variety he ever bred: enthusiasm, passion, inspiration, love, welcoming, excitement.
John’s plant breeding career grew out of his love for farming and farmers. In 1981 he headed to Oregon to be a firefighter but took a tangent and stopped by River Brook Farm near Eugene, Ore. He never made it to the forest and stayed in the field instead. After several seasons as a farmer his curiosity led him down the “path of seed” and headed back to school, first to teach sustainable agriculture at the College of the Atlantic, and then to get his Ph.D. at the University of WisconsinMadison. Farmers stayed in his heart, and his approach to breeding was always to understand what a farmer
needed and work closely in a participatory process with the farmer to develop breeding projects.
He worked at Garden City Seed in Missoula, Mont. and later at Alf Christianson Seed in the Skagit Valley of Washington. Our paths crossed when I was Executive Director of Abundant Life Seed Foundation in Port Townsend, Wash. I hired John to lead the improvement of our seed collection, and while doing the work of crop improvement with our seed growers network, the concept of Organic Seed Alliance was born. When a fire destroyed the Abundant Life collection in August of 2003, we both felt kicked in the gut with loss and grief and were all the more committed to launching a nonprofit that would work with farmers, universities, and independent seed companies to create diverse, regional resilience for the needs of organic farmers and consumers. John finished his career at Johnny’s Selected Seed in Maine, a place he deeply loved and a company he so enjoyed working for.
Over the decades John bred varieties like Purple Dragon Carrot, Astro Arugula, Shiraz Beet, Dark Star Zucchini, Cool Customer Cucumber, and so many more. And of course, he shared dozens and dozens of breeding lines with others to encourage them to develop new varieties. John was “open source” with his seed and knowledge before such a phrase was coined, and he humbly gave credit to all others who he learned from and who had shared with him.
Dr. Kevin Murphy, director of Washington State University recently told me a story of John’s impact on his life:
“I was an organic farmer who stumbled into a conversation with John at a conference. I ended up taking one of his three-day classes, The Fundamentals of Crop Improvement, and fell in love with plant breeding. I ended up taking the class three times and then went back to school to get my PhD. I fell in love with plant breeding, and it was 100% due to John. He had an enthusiasm that was contagious. In addition to being big-hearted, he was also bigvoiced—a booming sound that not only carried his musings on plant breeding but also his love of music. John played guitar and was in several bands over the years, with the fan favorite being The Pheromones who played at organic farm conferences around the country, including the MOSES (now Marbleseed) conference. He had an encyclopedic memory for music. He obsessively collected records and could tell you which studio musician played on which recording with shocking accuracy.”
And beyond all of these accomplishments and titles, John was a father and husband. He talked about his girls
Emilia and Zea with joy and tenderness. Terri Matson, his wife, was the deep love of his life, and when they landed together in Maine, he felt he was the luckiest man in the word and truly at home in heart and in place.
John will be buried in Maine with a green burial, giving back to the soil and land in death as he did in life. The family asks that donations be made in John’s name to Organic Seed Alliance, the nonprofit he co-founded.
Matthew Dillon serves as a co-CEO at the Organic Trade Association. Matthew has held diverse roles in the organic sector, working from seed to shelf. He was introduced to organic farming while in high school, raising produce with the monks at Mount Michael for a natural food store in Omaha, Neb. He later farmed vegetables, flowers, and seed crops in California in the 1990s and developed an interest in developing the organic seed sector. He served as Executive Director of Abundant Life Seed, one of the first organic seed companies in the US. In 2003, Matthew cofounded Organic Seed Alliance with John Navazio.
Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference
February 20-22, 2025 La Crosse, Wis.
Join us for the largest organic farming conference in the Midwest. Experience a lineup of educational workshops, farmer self-organizing, and community building— all centered on organic and regenerative farming!
conference.marbleseed.org
welCoMinG alondra Cano & kaleb orTner
Marbleseed’s team is growing! Marbleseed recently welcomed Alondra Cano aboard as our new Farmer Education Specialist and Kaleb Ortner aboard as our Organic Agronomy Specialist. Read their bios below:
Alondra’s agricultural educational journey began through her family’s work in the poultry processing industries followed by summers of detasseling corn. She graduated from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and is working towards her master’s degree in the Arts and Cultural Leadership program, all while helming the Hungry Turtle Farm in Amery, Wis.
Alondra is an immigrant, bicultural, bilingual, and passionate about organizing Spanish-speaking farmers and farmhands to work together to establish a local, cultural food system that reconnects communities to their traditional foods. She is now focused on adapting Mexican Indigenous maíz (corn) varieties to thrive in our Midwest climate for fresh masa production. She’s excited to use her linguistic abilities, her cultural connections, and her multi-faceted experience to deepen and
expand the legacy impact of one of the country’s most reputable, organic farming organizations—Marbleseed.
Kaleb received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Michigan State University in Crop and Soil Sciences. His research focused on transitioning topographically diverse farms to organic production using interseeded cover crops to decrease erosion. While there, he found a passion for organic production and soil health. He looks forward to providing technical assistance to farmers. Kaleb lives with his wife and their animals in the thumb of Michigan, where he farms organic row crops. Look for Kaleb’s article “How to include more cover crops in your rotation” in this issue of the Broadcaster!
We’re so excited to work with Kaleb and Alondra!
Marbleseed is GrowinG!
At Compeer Financial, we’re defined by you — your hopes for the future as well as your needs today. As a member-owned cooperative, our clients help shape the direction we go and how we serve them. And as organic farming continues to evolve, so will we, together. So whether you need an experienced lender or a trusted advisor you can count on, we’re ready. DEFINE YOUR SUCCESS WITH US: COMPEER.COM/EMERGINGMARKETS Ag Loans & Leases | Ag Business Services | Appraisals Crop Insurance | Beginning Farmer Program | And More
Paul Dietmann, Sr. Lending Specialist (608) 963-7763 | Paul.Dietmann@compeer.com
Sarah Hoerner, Lending Specialist (309) 386-2584 | Sarah.Hoerner@compeer.com
Sai Thao, Sr. Lending Specialist (612) 597-4086 | Sai.Thao@compeer.com
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Name Address
FOrages
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land
Farm for Sale or Lease
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For Rent: Certified Organic Storage Facility
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super sacks: 2400 lbs. Or 50% semi-soluable (Magna Plus)
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