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Organic marketing

Got a new neighbor busting up an old stand under a pivot. This guys organic. Told me organic wheat's worth $20. I know this field has had no fert or spray in over 3 yrs. So it's good to go for organic. The math looks interesting.
 
littlejoe said:
Got a new neighbor busting up an old stand under a pivot. This guys organic. Told me organic wheat's worth $20. I know this field has had no fert or spray in over 3 yrs. So it's good to go for organic. The math looks interesting.
Click to expand...

Math won't look so interesting when it makes less than half of what other wheat makes. Plus spend way more on inputs. Using manure for fertilizer cost more than regular plus then you spread other unwanted seeds out there in the manure which then become a problem controlling without chemical. I have watched a few try organic this or that the math on paper looks good but none are doing it now. Labeling at the stores is a joke. The thing that cracks me up at the store is the "free range" chicken eggs.
 
The only successful organic farmer I know has an almost unlimited access to chicken litter from his own 50,000 each chicken houses. He composts it properly to eliminate weeds and makes a pretty good crop, but his customer base is limited.

When the cat gets out of the bag that organic is no healthier nor safer, the party is over.
 
There is no debate from me that going cold turkey from conventional chemical farming into organic grains will yield one helluva weed patch if not done properly. I've done it and learned the hard way. The soil has to be rebuilt, it's fertility replaced. A proper transition to organic should be done over a few years with green manure rotations, cover cropping and soil amendments. And there's a lot more to it than manure. Our organic fertilizers cost the same or less than non-organic. I can do a full spectrum nutrient package for $50/acre. Calcium, soft rock phosphate, molasses or sugar, compost tea, and liquid fish. As for organic wheat being half the yield, maybe it was in some fields you saw, but that is not how it is everywhere in every circumstance.

Iowa State study, showing organic corn 20bu/acre behind conventional, and soybean yields equal:
http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/organicag/researchreports/n-kltar98.pdf

The Rodale Institute has run a 30-year study of side-by-side crop plots with organic vs conventional beans, corn, wheat and other crops. Here's a quote from it:
"Over the 30 years of the trial, organic corn and soybean yields were equivalent to conventional yields in the tilled systems. In wheat yields were the same for organic and conventional systems. (Wheat wasonly added to the conventional system in 2004)."

Full report on the 30-year study:
http://rodaleinstitute.org/assets/FSTbooklet.pdf
 
PureCountry said:
There is no debate from me that going cold turkey from conventional chemical farming into organic grains will yield one helluva weed patch if not done properly. I've done it and learned the hard way. The soil has to be rebuilt, it's fertility replaced. A proper transition to organic should be done over a few years with green manure rotations, cover cropping and soil amendments. And there's a lot more to it than manure. Our organic fertilizers cost the same or less than non-organic. I can do a full spectrum nutrient package for $50/acre. Calcium, soft rock phosphate, molasses or sugar, compost tea, and liquid fish. As for organic wheat being half the yield, maybe it was in some fields you saw, but that is not how it is everywhere in every circumstance.

Iowa State study, showing organic corn 20bu/acre behind conventional, and soybean yields equal:
http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/organicag/researchreports/n-kltar98.pdf

The Rodale Institute has run a 30-year study of side-by-side crop plots with organic vs conventional beans, corn, wheat and other crops. Here's a quote from it:
"Over the 30 years of the trial, organic corn and soybean yields were equivalent to conventional yields in the tilled systems. In wheat yields were the same for organic and conventional systems. (Wheat wasonly added to the conventional system in 2004)."

Full report on the 30-year study:
http://rodaleinstitute.org/assets/FSTbooklet.pdf
Click to expand...

I believe your right about rebuilding soil but how is one to make a land payment or rent payment for a "few" years while rebuilding soil? None of these studies take that into consideration.....ever! No way you can take conventional field day your growing organic then boom you get top yields. Part of the reason it will be half is because of lack of fertilizer uptake and weed/other grass problems
 
The point I was trying to make more about the studies is how a person does this and is still farming after losing money the first three to five years. I use cover crops and believe in improving soil but there is a line in what I can do and still be in business. If i owned all the ground I farmed free and clear I could do lots of stuff and still make money.
 
You add soil amendments, do the cover crop rotations, maybe implement intensive grazing on those cover crops or all kinds of things that rapidly build soil - WHILE you still farm conventionally, so as to not disrupt your income streams at all.

While Gabe Brown in North Dakota is not organic, this gives an idea of what I'm talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQpA7opP-WA

I'm not saying it works for everyone if it's done this way or that. Just offering examples of things that do work, because I've seen it work, and I've made it work for me.
 

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