Organic Farming: Challenges and Opportunities!

The Canadian farm gate value of organic farming products is estimated at $500 million annually. Roughly 25% of Canada's organic production comes from Ontario, about 1-1.5% of our agricultural product. While not a big proportion, the organic sector has been growing at approximately 20% per year for over ten years - an impressive record of growth in any sector! And with somewhere over 600 centrified organic farmers in Ontario, this sector continues to have excellent opportunities!

Prices for good quality organic soybeans have recently been ranging from $18-20 per bushel, and organic corn ranges from $7-9/bushel. Impressive! But how do you get there?

A study by Dr. Alan Hall from U. of Windsor last year surveyed 256 organic farmers, with some interesting results. Only 51% of organic farms have livestock! The average organic farm is 217 acres with 153 acres of cropland. Many of these farms are integrated with small acreages of fruit or vegetables. Some have larger acreages of processing green beans, peas, and sweet corn. Not what some of my colleagues envisioned.

One of the challenges on an organic farm is managing crop needs for fertility and pest control. Organic farmers choose not to use many of the tools that conventional neighbours rely on, like commercial fertilizers and pesticides. Organic farms rely on longer crop rotations with cover crops and timely cultivations to control weeds and other pests. For example, soybeans are delayed in planting to late in May so that preplant tillage will kill the first flush of weeds, and rotary hoeing or harrowing is used to kill many more weeds at the white root stage - before the weeds emerge. The success of these strategies is more variable than their neighbours, with a greater dependency on management skills and weather.

Many growers of organic soybeans indicate that yields may be below conventional norms, but are acceptable and profitable with the current prices. Continuous soybeans do not work. It degrades the soil structure and encourages too many weeds. The challenge has been to develop a crop rotation that is profitable. On livestock farms there are options for hay crops and other feed crops that can be fed to organic livestock. In recent years, as the organic livestock sector has developed, the need for organic feeds has also grown. New markets for organic corn and cereal feed grains are developing. Export markets for a variety of organic products continue to grow.

Organic wheat and spelt are winter cereals with successful markets in the milling and baking product markets. Fall rye and buckwheat are largely used as cover crops to enhance weed control but also have some opportunity for cash markets.

Organic farming has many challenges. While the production challenge is manageable, often the marketing is the most challenging. Knowing the requirements of the market and designing your production system to meet them is critical. There is a lot to learn when you start to farm organically, but successful organic farmers say they are having fun!

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