In this Issue:
RAFI-USA’s Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund will make cost-share demonstration grants to farmers, farm organizations, and community groups in Alamance, Bladen, Caswell, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Nash, Orange, Person, Randolph, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Vance, Wake, Warren, and Wilson counties. Cost-share support of up to $10,000 will be awarded to individual producers and support of up to $30,000 will be awarded to collaborative farmer efforts. Demonstration grants will be awarded through a competitive selection process. Grants will be awarded to innovative projects which show farmers a new direction or opportunity. Priority will be given to projects that benefit farmers who had income from tobacco and to projects that create an opportunity for a new generation of farmers. Deadline for applications is November 11, 2009. Funds will be available to farmers in February 2010. For complete eligibility requirements and guidelines, visit RAFI-USA’s website at: www.rafiusa.org For more information or to discuss potential project ideas contact: Keith Ellis; 919-259-4101; keith@rafiusa.org , or call (919)542-1396, ext.205 . RAFI-USA is a private, non-profit organization based in Pittsboro, North Carolina. RAFI cultivates markets, policies and communities that support thriving, socially just and environmentally sound family farms. -------------- The 2008 Spring Workshops were a success. We held three no-till organic production workshops in May and early June on farms in Mt. Ulla, Tyner, and Pantego. The cover crop trials for rolling and no-till planting of corn and soybeans were highlighted at each farm. Initial results from those trials are below in this newsletter. We also had two workshops on organic and hard wheat production in Eagle Springs (on Billy Carter’s Farm) and in Waynesville, NC. At both locations, Dr. David Marshall planted one of his hard wheat variety trials. We toured the trials, learned about hard wheat varieties, and talked about organic wheat production and the possibility of a “local” or “NC-grown” bread flour as Dr. Marshall has developed some hard wheat varieties that perform well in the state. Two new varieties from these trials will be released this summer: Appalachian White (a hard white wheat) and Nu East (a hard red wheat). These varieties are joining TAM-303 released two years ago. ------------------ NC Organic Crop Conference 2010 We are excited that the first annual Organic Crop Conference will be held jointly at the ___ Conference Center in New Bern with the Joint Corn, Small Grain, and Soybean Growers Conference on January , 2010. The Organic Crop Conference will be geared towards production and marketing issues of certified organic tobacco, grain, dairy, and large-scale vegetable farms. We are in the planning stages of this conference and really need feedback and participation from organic growers on speakers, topics, meetings, and format. Please contact the planning committee chairs, Mary Wilks (crop consultant) or Mac Gibbs (Hyde County Extension Director), if you wish to participate on the planning committee or if you wish to have any input in the conference agenda. Thank you very much for your help! Mary Wilks; Email: marytwilks@yahoo.com; Mac Gibbs; Email: Malcolm_gibbs@ncsu.edu; Phone: 252-926-4488
II. NRCS EQIP Money for Organics On May 5, 2009 USDA announced that $50 million in additional funding nationwide to encourage more organic agriculture production was being made available as part of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The 2009 Organic Initiative is a nationwide special initiative to provide financial assistance to National Organic Program (NOP) certified organic producers as well as producers in the process of transitioning to organic production. *To find the NRCS office in your county go to: http://www.nc.nrcs.usda.gov/about/ . Click “Find a service center” to access the directory.
III. No-till Organic Grain Project Update by: Chris Reberg-Horton and Julie Grossman We do not have a lot of data yet, but wanted to give everyone an update on the project. The experiment was planted at seven locations last fall and the best five were chosen to continue with this spring. Fourteen different legumes were rolled and planted to corn and six cultivars of rye were rolled and planted to soybeans. Preliminary information on the correct time of roll for each cover crop is listed below. Table 1. Roll times for legume cover crops.
Table 2. Roll times for rye (Secale cereal L.) cover crops.
One unifying factor for most of the cover crops is that it must be heavily flowering to kill with the roller. For instance, in crimson clover, we estimate that flowers must be on average 80% up each head before the cover crop can be killed (Figure 1). Vetch must have a few green pods with unfilled seed on the lower stems, and rye needs to be in the milk stage of development. We are putting together a guide for knowing when these crops are ready to roll which will be available by next year. The subterranean clover was impossible to kill with the roller and died on its own sometime in late May after seeding out. Subterranean clover flowers underground, making it an ideal reseeder. Whether this is an advantage or disadvantage depends on the crop rotation. All the rye cultivars grew well and flowering time has so far been the only distinguishing feature. Soybeans emerged well from the rye mulches and weeds have yet to break through. Given our positive experiences with this system last year, we are optimistic about the system, but not yet ready to recommend it. We hope to be able to recommend after this year’s yields come in. It is too early to make predictions with the corn. We planted corn at three times at each of the stations, mid-April, late April/early May, and mid-May. While the roller did not kill any of the cover crops at the first planting date, some of the corn plots look surprisingly good. The middle planting date at Plymouth and the Hubers farm suffered severe stand problems. We suspect a combination of cutworms and birds. Other planting dates and locations had decent stand establishment. We’ll update you with more about nitrogen in the cover crops in the next issue.
by: Molly Hamilton Figuring out organic grain prices can simple for some and much more complex for others. At times, it is difficult for even the buyers to know what their prices will be. It is important, however, in marketing organic grain to know who is paying what price for which commodity. Currently, you can get an idea of national organic grain prices at a few websites. The first two are from USDA's Market News and the third is a link to Rodale Institute's Price Index for various sites around the country. http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/gx_gr120.txt (Eastern Corn Belt) http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/nw_gr113.txt (Upper Mid West) http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/Organic-Price-Report The prices on these sites, however, don't always accurately reflect what prices will be paid in NC. It is always best to call buyers to find out what they are buying, when they need product delivered (storage issues), how much they want, and how they are paying. The cost of delivery always needs to be calculated in with the price; obviously, the closer the buyer, the lower the freight cost for the farmer. Currently, NC wheat buyers are still able to buy, cheaply, old crop organic wheat from the mid-west, but they are buying some NC-grown wheat between $11 and $12 per bushel. However, to storage for new crop wheat makes sense if you wish to be able to sell later in the year or in case buyers need to wait to have your crop delivered. Prices for organic corn and soybeans probably follow the USDA Market News prices currently, but things will likely change closer to harvest time. It is always best to call buyers to ask what they are paying or what they expect to pay (knowing that may change closer to time of delivery).
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