New no-till organic farming research benefits tillage growers

Tag : Organic Salt

Carr became interested in conducting no-till organic farmingresearch because of the growing consumer demand for organic crops.Retail sales have grown by about 20 percent annually since 1990,even though this year's higher food costs caused by high fuel andtransportation prices may slow demand for the short term.

North Dakota is second behind only California in certified organicacreage.

Carr realized organic crops could be a viable alternative to cropsgrown conventionally for some producers here.

However, he also realized that many farmers in western North Dakotause no-till to conserve moisture and soil with the lowprecipitation and consistent winds that is typical of this region.

He would have to find out how no-till could work with organicfarming in order to make the research useful to producers in thisarea.

“This is probably the greatest challenge I've faced in 20years of research,” he said. “If we can develop anorganic no-till system, and it is successful, it could be atremendous boon to organic farming and have a major impact in theGreat Plains.”

Along the way he has also found out that the work will befar-reaching beyond the Great Plains. Parts of the organic farmingresearch at the center will benefit farmers in high moistureregions such as southeastern North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.

Other parts of the research will benefit farmers who don't want togo organic, but who want to save money on inputs such as commercialfertilizer and want to know more about the benefits of rotation.

Carr said there are organic farming experiments planned that willlook at diverse rotations, including a seven-year rotation. Otherexperiments will study supplemental and alternative sources tonitrogen fertilizer.

One of those alternative sources will be peas, lentils and otherlegumes which are natural nitrogen fixers.

“What we will find out will have direct and immediateapplication to conventional farmers, too,” he said.

Crops used in the organic farming research program will includefield and sweet corn, wheat, barley, oats, flax, lentils and a hostof other crops, including some garden vegetables.

Niche-type crops such as ember wheat will also be evaluated. Emberwheat has been grown for thousands of years and is rich in proteinand vitamins so it fits well into the health food niche.

Another important organic no-till experiment under way at thecenter involves the use of cover crops and a specially designedroller/crimper for killing them.

North Dakota recently joined Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania,Michigan and Wisconsin in a grant-funded project to determine ifcover crops and the roller/crimper can control weeds in an organicsystem in place of tillage.

Some of these states are high in soybean and corn production, andthis study incorporates that.

Soybean will be seeded into a rolled and crimped hairy vetch covercrop at all locations except Dickinson. In the southwestern regionof North Dakota, soybean is not well adapted so pinto bean will beseeded instead.

In addition, corn will be seeded into a rolled and crimped winterrye cover crop at Dickinson and other locations.

The cover crops can be rolled and crimped and the corn and pintobean seeded in a one-pass operation.

Carr said if using cover crops and the roller/crimper is effectiveand tillage can be eliminated, soil moisture would be conserved.That would create a seedbed which would be in the best possiblecondition for planting.

“If you till the soil, you're going to increase theevaporation - less tilling, less evaporation,” he said.

At the Dickinson Center, 10 acres of land were certified by twomajor organic farming certifiers in preparation for the organicresearch, he said.

Carr wanted them certified by the same associations that commercialorganic producers already use. That would make his research moreacceptable to organic farmers, he said.

“Getting some of our plot ground certified does helplegitimize our project. If we have certified land that passesinspection, it makes our research more attractive to organicfarmers,” he said.

The certifiers spent a considerable amount of time certifying theland at the center as Dickinson is the first government researchcenter in North Dakota to have land certified organic.

More land is being transitioned so it can be certified in just afew more years, he added.

In preparation for the organic research, Carr said he spent a lotof time on the phone trying to find out who has done no-tillorganic farming research and what suggestions they might have.

“I called everyone I could think of here in the U.S., inCanada, even in Europe,” Carr said.

What he found out is there wasn't really any true no-till (asno-till is defined by conventional Great Plains farmers) organicfarming going on out there. Although, some small groups in theU.S., Canada and Europe are doing a rotation type no-till wherethey will go no-till for one or two years, and then the third yeartill the soil.

“We have a lot of obstacles, and we do need to test thesystem as we go along,” he said.

But Carr is excited about continuing the research.

“We're going to try to begin to put the pieces together asquick as we can so we have some results for producers in anotheryear or two,” he said.

The no-till organic farming results will be compared withconventional no-till farming.

“But we're also looking at the long term. No one has reallylooked at no-till organic farming long term,” he said.
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