BLANCHARDVILLE, Wis. – The organic apple crop in Wisconsin next fall will depend on a lot of things that will happen this spring.
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute is offering a March 16 workshop on organic apple management to help owners of a few individual apple trees, those who grow apples as part of school gardens, and others.
Registration is open now. A key presenter is Deirdre Birmingham, a nationally-known organic apple grower. Birmingham said she and her husband overcame a lot of challenges in establishing their operation, The Cider Farm.
"And since it's in March, that's the time of year that one is pruning their trees, and we'll talk about how pruning can help with disease management and insect pests and your apple crop load," she explained. "And we'll be doing some actual grafting, and that's where you have the opportunity to make your own tree."
Birmingham said when she and her husband were setting up their operation several years ago, the apple varieties they wanted to grow were not commercially available, so they had to create their orchard by grafting their stock with varieties from France and England.
She sees the underpinning of organic agriculture as building up soil health and soil organic matter.
"That also applies to growing apple trees organically," she said. "Having a diverse, rich soil-microbe community helps the trees build their own resistance and also helps them get everything out of the soil that they can to be strong, vibrant trees."
She noted that people often think of an organic apple orchard as a no-spray or low-spray operation for pesticides, but there have been major developments in that area.
"With the growth of organic farming and consumers driving that, an increasing number of products are being developed that growers can use to stimulate tree health and to more naturally fight against some of the diseases and insect pests that are common in our kind of conditions," she said.
Birmingham's orchard produces high-end dry cider and apple brandy.
get more stories like this via email
Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has finalized its Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity rule, under the Packers and Stockyards Act this month. Advocates said it is a big step in addressing discrimination and even deception smaller livestock and poultry producers have faced for decades, from corporations they contract with to bring their products to market.
Aaron Johnson, policy co-director for the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, explained some of the long-standing concerns the rule addresses.
"One thing that we have documented in past reports is the tendency of integrators to present the terms and the potential benefits of the contracts they're offering during the recruitment process with growers in what we would assess to be deceptive terms," Johnson explained.
In addition to misleading contract terms, he noted some farmers were recruited within months of a plant being closed. He contended with the new rule, such issues can be prevented. It will go into effect 60 days after it is published, and producers will be able to use a Farmer Fairness Portal to submit their concerns to the Packers and Stockyards Division.
North Carolina poultry farms produce almost 8 million turkeys annually. Johnson emphasized the rule will work in tandem with another recent rule giving poultry farmers a more accurate estimate of the income they will receive with a contract. He believes even more could be done to strengthen protections for livestock and poultry producers in the performance-based payment system known as the "tournament system."
"One thing that hasn't been addressed by these two rules, as of yet, is really robust and targeted reform of the tournament system itself," Johnson stressed. "One thing I would highlight is that the tournament itself is one of the systemic facilitators of retaliation."
By "retaliation," he asserted some farms have had their contracts cut short and have even been driven out of business. He predicted more rules addressing issues in the tournament system and manipulation of cattle prices are expected.
get more stories like this via email
New agricultural census data show a significant increase in production value for New England farms over the past five years. There are nearly 31,000 farms and ranches operating in the region - a 5% decline from 2017. But those remaining farms grew their production value by nearly 32% to more than $3.5 billion.
Pam Hird, USDA state statistician, said the growth stems from more than just consolidation or an increase in food prices.
"We're using new technologies and new methods and learning things from our universities and our extension services. We're becoming more efficient at farming," she explained.
Hird added the census finds New England farms ranging in size from one to nine acres suffered the greatest losses and are part of the more than 20 million acres of American farmland lost to development and other factors over the past five years.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called the decline in operational farmland "a wakeup call" for America and noted that a majority of America's farmers still rely on second incomes unrelated to farming to make ends meet. Hird said the census reveals an increasing number of young farmers with less than 10 years of experience are helping sustain the region's farm sector.
"What we do is very important," Hird contended. "We're high on the list for organics. We produce hay and hay forage. We have cattle. We have cut flowers. We have honey and bees. Maple, of course, is very critical."
While the number of organic farm numbers declined by nine-percent from 2017, the value of organic sales increased slightly. Hird says more than 67% of regional farmers responded to the census, providing critical data that determines farm programs and services, disaster assistance and technology development.
get more stories like this via email
Iowa factory farms could cash in on new proposed carbon emissions tax-credit rules in California.
The new emissions standards would allow California to buy tax credits from Iowa and other states, to offset diesel emissions in California.
Though well known for polluting the state's groundwater, Iowa'a Commercial Animal Feeding Operations - or CAFOs - are considered less carbon intensive than wind and solar operations.
That's because some CAFOs have installed anaerobic digesters, which remove methane from liquid manure. Operators sell that methane as "environmentally friendly" fuel.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement member Brenda Brink said the rules would mean California could buy the tax credits from CAFOs instead of cleaner sources.
"You see what's going to happen then?" said Brink. "Wind and solar is getting shafted, because they're taking off like gangbusters and there's basically no greenhouse gas emission from them."
Supporters of the new rules argue emission tax-credit plans like these are designed with the greater global good in mind, and claim the goal is to reduce emissions planet-wide.
The public comment period just wrapped up. A decision is expected this spring.
Brink argued this emissions tax credit plan would encourage out-of-state and even international owners to build more CAFOs in Iowa - where, at more than 4,000, the state is already the nation's leader in large-scale ag operations by a factor of more than 3.5.
"Because it's such a sweet deal, it's pushing more and more production through factory farms" said Brink. "State governments see the sweet deal it is - 'Well, look, it's clean energy.' And so, it's just this huge P.R. thing that is not true."
Based on an interactive map, California will likely purchase emission tax credits in other parts of the country as well, where CAFO operators have installed anaerobic digesters.
get more stories like this via email