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Growing organic crops is complicated balancing act Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Agri News staff writer
BLOOMING PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Growing organic crops is a complicated balancing act with crops, rotations and cultural cropping practices, Mother Nature and man working as teammates and opponents.
Tom and Karen Wencl and their sons, Wayne and Chris, farm organically in Steele County. Management and change are constant as they fine tune their organic dairy and crop operation.
"You learn this stuff as you go along," Tom said.
They have a three-year crop rotation and a six-year crop rotation, but those rotations are dynamic.
The three-year rotation is generally a small grain with a clover underseeing followed by corn and soybeans. The six-year rotation starts with winter rye, which is harvested in the spring, and followed by a forage sorghum, which is harvested in the summer before a direct seeding of alfalfa generally the second week of August. That alfalfa is raised for two years and followed by corn and sorghum or two years of corn.
They plant a brown midrib sorghum that is highly digestible, Tom said. It is a much better forage than sorghum used to be. They harvest the rye in May and plant sorghum in June, timing the two around weed emergence. They are trying triticale this year and are also growing certified organic peas.
They use cover crops ahead of corn and soybeans and sometimes harvest them ahead of the row crop. Cover crops not only help with weed pressure, Karen said, but also provide needed forage for their livestock.
"All of our crops go to the cows," Tom said. Their milk is sold to Organic Valley cooperative. Their base price is $23.50 per hundredweight, which is set for a year. Organic Valley has grown from 500 farm members when they started to more than 1,200 now, Karen said.
The Wencls have 120 cows, which are predominantly Holstein with a few crossbreds. All cows are artificially inseminated once and those who don't breed are bred to a clean-up bull. They raise their heifers as herd replacements, but sell their bull calves at one-week-old to a conventional farmer. They lack adequate pasture to raise their bull calves as market steers. To be sold as organic beef, steers must have access to pasture, Tom said.
Dairy cows must, too. Organic rules require that dairy cows have access to pasture for a minimum of 120 days per year and that they get at least 30 percent of their forage from the pasture, Tom said.
Pasture management has increased in importance as the years have went by, he said.
Tom manages the farm and takes care of the morning milking. Wayne does the evening milking. Karen cares for the calves and Chris feeds the cows. A third child, Jenny, is a math major at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
Each son has a different area they are most interested in, Tom said. Wayne is better with cows and Chris is better with crops.
Everyone, including Tom's father, Ludwig, helps with fieldwork. They plant corn around May 20, waiting to avoid some early weeds.
They use a diverse crop rotation, late planting, rotation, a front mount cultivator, a tine drag, rotary hoe and flame weeder to control weeds. Weed control is an ongoing project, Tom said, there are no quick fixes. They also walk beans.
Different fields have different weeds, Tom said. Observation is key to managing weeds in an organic production system.
It helps to have soils in balance, Karen added. |
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