On-Farm Surveys of Organic Farm Practice in Ontario

Researchers
Karen Maitland, and E. Ann Clark, Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph.

Abstract
From 10 to 13 farms were surveyed annually between 2001 and 2003, to establish a database of agronomic and soil management practices, such as landbase distribution and crop rotations, production practices and inputs, farmer-identified pests and management practices, crop and livestock genetics, and farmer-identified production and marketing constraints. Farms were selected to enable contrasts between horticultural (hort) and field crop farms, and between those with and without access to livestock manure, using pasture farms as the soil control. Assessments were based on broccoli, carrot, and potato crops on hort farms, and spring grain, winter cereal, and soybean fields on field crop farms. Soils under permanent pasture were significantly higher in soil organic matter (SOM), K, and Mg than hort and field crop soils, with similar but not significant trends in P and Ca. Soils did not differ between hort and field crop farms in any measured parameter, with SOM of 4.1 (n=30) and 3.8% (n=39), respectively and with P and K levels generally in the low to medium range for hort crops and in the medium to high range for field crops, based on OMAF recommendations. Degree of livestock integration, independent of farm type, influenced most measured parameters, but as most farms employed either perennial forages in the rotation or composted livestock manure or both, trends were not always significant. Crop rotations averaged 7 courses on both hort and field crop farms, with living winter soil cover on 42 and 64% of the hort and field crop farms, respectively. Pest species identified by farmers were highly site-specific, as corroborated for weeds with quadrat sampling. Lambsquarters was the only weed accounting for at least 5% of weed biomass on all 5 hort farms, and on 4 of 6 field crop farms. Pigweed, grasses, and wild mustard were prominent on hort farms, as were grasses, clovers, alfalfa, and ragweed on field crop farms. On average, weed biomass was twice as high on field crop as on hort crop farms, reflecting differences in cultivation intensity. The site-specificity of both the management practices and pest problems will necessitate novel research methods to serve the organic farming community.