Aren’t all organic farmers in a perpetual state of euphoria?I thought that was the idea?
I'd never thought that would explain the look on @Raynard 's face...
Recommend a organic fertility building crop.
- Thread starter miniconnect
- Start date
I'd never thought that would explain the look on @Raynard 's face...
- Location
- Hampshire
Our neighbour grows a cocksfoot / red clover based herbal ley as their fertility building ley, which works very well, and works well for us as we summer graze some of it with dairy heifers. In my opinion livestock really kickstarts the soil, be better if you could find someone with cattle / sheep.
They undersow it into spring barley.
They undersow it into spring barley.
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
did you not grow organic barley for japanese people?
Is it true that if you're Organic you don't need Farm Assurance ?
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
noIs it true that if you're Organic you don't need Farm Assurance ?
so not only the organic inspection etc but FA as well
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
i cant remember, but i am sure they forced us into fa eventually.so not only the organic inspection etc but FA as well
Oh,So you were organic but gave it up..? i think of it sometimes then go off the idea again.
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
i gave up when SA started certyifying boatloads of russian wheat as "organic"
Just because it’s not Britsh doesn’t mean it has been plastered in Novichok.
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Well they dont certify it now, so draw your own conclusions
Red clover, and keep topping and mulching it ?
Mustard as cheap as anything, other alternatives are pricey.
I wouldn't recommend undersowing, even clover gains too much of a foothold in late difficult seasons. Greenery going though the combine raises moisture % and the straw ends up crap too.
Mustard as cheap as anything, other alternatives are pricey.
I wouldn't recommend undersowing, even clover gains too much of a foothold in late difficult seasons. Greenery going though the combine raises moisture % and the straw ends up crap too.
New Puritan
Member
- Location
- East Sussex
Is it true that if you're Organic you don't need Farm Assurance ?
Depends on your business model and who your customers are. I was with both when I started, both were done together in the same inspection (OFG and FA). I've dropped FA now though as I sell everything either direct to the processor or farmer to farmer, and (having checked) nobody I supply felt FA added anything that being organic didn't already cover.
As one who has observed, inspected, and consulted hundreds of organic farms, I can tell you that without grazing or synthetic fertilizers you are not going to build fertility if you harvest your grain crops. You simply export more nutrients in the grain than what you can replace, and there is not a silver bullet fbc that can be undersown or cover cropped. It is simple math if you know how to read a soil test and a nutrient density test on your harvested grain. The only way that I’ve seen fertility built in an organic system is intense and diverse crop rotation, direct drilling, and strategic management of grazing. Very hard to do. Otherwise, organic cropping especially in a tillage based system (even with diversity of crops) degrades soils, sooner or later depending on the soil.
The only caveat to that is that I have seen small 5 to 10 acre veggie organic gardens intensively managed with double cropping, green manure cover crops, and lots of chicken manure. They built fertility and SOM. But those were high value cash crops that could afford the labor and organic approved inputs.
New Puritan
Member
- Location
- East Sussex
@miniconnect ,
Lampkin's "Organic Farming" book has a section on stockless organic rotations. It gives an example of a farm in Ireland (Ballybrado) that grow a 3 year rotation of:
1. Spring field beans
2. Spring or winter wheat undersown with clover
3. Winter rye or spring oats, followed by mustard over winter.
Are you too far north for beans?
Also, Briggs' "Organic Cereal & Pulse Production" has some info on stockless arable. I'm not going to type it all out as it goes on a bit and they give different examples for different soil types, buy I can try and upload a photo of the pages if of interest?
Also from memory someone on here: https://www.agricology.co.uk/field/farmer-profiles is organic with no livestock.
Lampkin's "Organic Farming" book has a section on stockless organic rotations. It gives an example of a farm in Ireland (Ballybrado) that grow a 3 year rotation of:
1. Spring field beans
2. Spring or winter wheat undersown with clover
3. Winter rye or spring oats, followed by mustard over winter.
Are you too far north for beans?
Also, Briggs' "Organic Cereal & Pulse Production" has some info on stockless arable. I'm not going to type it all out as it goes on a bit and they give different examples for different soil types, buy I can try and upload a photo of the pages if of interest?
Also from memory someone on here: https://www.agricology.co.uk/field/farmer-profiles is organic with no livestock.
New Puritan
Member
- Location
- East Sussex
This guy: https://www.agricology.co.uk/field/farmer-profiles/stephen-briggs - I knew there was one on there somewhere. He sounds like he has some interesting ideas with being organic and planting trees etc.
miniconnect
Member
- Location
- Argyll
miniconnect
Member
- Location
- Argyll
I think beans would grow here. If they don't mind wet feet from time to time, there's plenty over East Central Scotland. It doesn't happen here, probably because you'd never get them harvested.
@glasshouse you are correct, that's still what I'm at, pm me if you want to know more of it.