Sharing Organic Knowledge

By Brenda Frick, Ph.D.

Organic farming is based on knowledge. One of the most valuable ways of getting that knowledge is at farm field days, where farmers can share their successes, their challenges and their experiments. A wide variety of these mentorship events are hosted by organic producer groups across the prairies each summer.

Field days are an ideal showcase for new opportunities

Field days are an ideal opportunity to get a look at non-traditional crops such as hemp, turtle beans, faba beans and Camelina. Interest in hemp has been strong in recent years, and many of the buyers have a strong preference for an organic product. Camelina, known as false flax, or gold of pleasure, is an oilseed crop with a fatty acid profile that is attracting interest as a health product. It is also of interest to advocates of biodiesel.

Organic vegetable production is one area with tremendous potential. On the prairies, we import the vast majority of the organic produce that we buy. Expanding local production to replace some of those imports would provide consumers with fresher products and producers with opportunities to diversify their incomes. Reducing our food miles, the distance our food travels before it gets to us, also makes environmental sense.

Organic vegetable production can be challenging. Issues include the amount of labour needed, the urgency of a product that doesn’t store well, and the cost of certification relative to gross sales. Most organic production is currently sold to restaurants or directly to consumers, either at farmers’ markets or in arrangements between producer and consumer such as CSAs (consumer supported agriculture, where consumers pay for a share in the harvest that they receive in regular installments through the season).

Interest in livestock is strong this year, particularly beef and sheep production. Marketing and infrastructure remain a concern, but confidence in the potential of organic meat is growing. Organic production remains diverse, with a variety of breeds, and management styles. Much of the beef is on natural pasture at this time of year, but haying, silage production and composting manure are of interest to producers. The organic market for beef includes both grass-fed and grain finished animals. Currently most organic animals are shipped live, with some meat sold at the farm gate.

Field days showcase research

Research of interest to organic producers is also showcased at field days. At the OCIA Chapter 5 Crop Tour, University of Saskatchewan researchers Julia Baird and Gift Marufu showed their field plots. Julia showed how heavy seeding rates for lentil greatly increased competition with weeds and Gift showed the impact of different green manure or green feed options on the following wheat crop.

The field day at the Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre was not specifically targeted for organic producers, but organic production was considered here as well. Potato research is showing the advantage of new cultivars that produce larger numbers of the smaller tubers. These smaller types of potatoes, once considered only as culls, are now recognized as having an important niche market compatible with organics. Research on strawberry crowns, lead by Karen Tanino at the University of Saskatchewan is investigating potential benefits for organic prairie production. California strawberry producers plant new crowns each year, and they have difficulty producing these new crowns organically. Karen’s research suggests that there may be advantages to producing these crowns organically, here in the Canadian prairies.

Field days build capacity

The benefits of field days go well beyond what is seen in the field. Field days bring producers together to learn from each other. They discuss techniques and ideas, and share intentions – how direct seeding is working for them, what seeding rates they use for their intercrops, what new weeds are being seen in their areas, how they plan to handle their hemp harvest. Often there are people on hand to help identify a disease, to discuss programs or policies, or to help brainstorm weed management options.

Field days are also social occasions, opportunities to renew old friendships and establish new ones. For Southwest Saskatchewan OCIA Chapter #8, it was a chance to celebrate their 15th anniversary. Field days are chances to eat together, and to celebrate the magic of summer on the prairies, the opportunities of organic agriculture and the joys of doing something you believe in. Field days foster a strong, proud and capable organic community.

Brenda Frick, Ph.D., P.Ag., is the Prairie Coordinator for OACC (the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada) at the College of Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan. She welcomes your comments at 306-966-4975 or via email at brenda.frick@usask.ca.

Posted on the OACC website, September 2006