Cottonwood County farmer Phil Batalden, rural Lamberton, is into his 11th year as a certified organic farmer. “I was too small to survive,” he said. “I just don’t have enough acres to compete conventionally.”
But he also said, “Farming this way is more fun.”
Batalden’s 390 acres of organic farming has a three-year rotation of small grains (usually wheat) followed with a legume under-seeded, then corn, then soybeans. He buys untreated organic seed and plants later than most conventional farmers when soil temps are warmer. Using mostly 90-day corn, he has multiple seed choices. As expected corn yields vary but his 2009 corn, planted at 32,000 plants per acre, yielded better than expected.
With soybeans Batalden talks with his buyer first to find out what particular food-grade bean they want, then makes his seed selection accordingly. For wheat a high-protein is first choice so the finished product out of the field is acceptable for flour.
“This year, like everyone else, our protein is real low. So we still have the wheat and right now I don’t know where, or when, or at what price I’ll get it sold,” he said. He’s concerned, knowing full well that buyers will be most reluctant to give a price.
Having markets for his crops isn’t much of an issue anymore. But not so when he started in 1999. He had to find his markets those early years. “There’s more buyers every year now. Some are calling us.”
His biggest challenge getting into organics?
He laughed. “It’s not my neighbors. They knew I was crazy. Getting over that ‘conventional farming’ mindset was the toughest for me. I always used to have to buy fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, even more fuel. I had to get over the hump that you can’t control weeds without chemicals.
“You’ll have some clean fields; you’ll have some disasters. But get the right weather break and cultivate when needed, you’ll be OK.” It still means hiring some field walkers, especially for soybeans. Migrant workers are his usual source. Depending upon the size of the crew, the beans are walked in one to five days. Corn shades the row fairly quick keeping weed pressure down.
Batalden doesn’t necessarily know the precise destination for all of his organic grains, but his food-grade soybeans go to Japan for the tofu market, his corn goes mostly to Eastern seaboard dairy operations producing organic milk, and his wheat goes to flour millers.
Market premiums can range from double, even triple the price of conventional grains to sometimes only a 10-percent bonus. For price protection, he contracts some of his anticipated production if the price is acceptable.
His tillage has gotten “easier” thanks to the higher organic content of his three-year rotation. “I didn’t expect this but the soils changed fast.” During his trial years, grasses were the culprit because he’d sometimes work soils when they were still too wet. Now he gets a mix of broad leaves and grass weeds but that small grain crop between the two row crops has changed weed pressure. Water hemp, for example, has pretty much disappeared.
Batalden isn’t concerned about their “niche” market getting oversold. “Yes, given the right opportunity the American farmer can overproduce anything but I don’t foresee this in organics because our market keeps growing.” His only change for 2010 is to get more cover crop into that rotation.
“Organic farming is ecologically, socially and economically sustainable.” His son, Ryan, runs a cow-calf operation so grazing and “free manure” further complements their organic fields.
