Members of the Custer County Sustainable Agriculture Society want to improve the agriculture in their county. This diverse group of farmers, market gardeners, livestock feeders, dairymen, and beekeepers has been together for many years demonstrating ways to increase profits, reduce chemical inputs, improve marketing, and conserve energy. Although the members’ operations differ greatly, they are all similar in their use of innovative practices.
Mike Chandler runs a farm that includes crops, livestock, and bees. For five years he has been testing a crop rotation which includes corn or sorghum and sweetclover. Chandler keeps bees to produce high quality honey from the sweetclover, but the honey is produced only during the second year after planting when the clover flowers. Chandler would like to be able to harvest either a crop or honey each year. To do this he is trying to seed the sweetclover over a growing crop of corn or sorghum. The sweetclover will then spend its first year growing below the harvestable grain crop. He has succeeded with overseeding in dryland sorghum but has had problems with the corn/sweetclover mix. The corn "just gets too high", shading out the sweetclover below, according to Chandler.
How many beehives the sweetclover crop will support is another question Chandler is trying to answer. He started at five hives per acre and in 1998 plans to put out 8-10 hives per acre. He believes he can produce $700 worth of honey per acre using this system. Chandler says that is a better return than a corn crop.
An additional benefit of the sweetclover is that it fixes nitrogen in the soil. After disking down the clover, Chandler can plant a corn crop and get excellent yields without applying fertilizer. His goal is to get to a three-year corn (sweetclover)-sweetclover-corn rotation that is productive without added nitrogen fertilizer.
Another innovator in the group is Max Bates. Bates has combined his earth moving business and market garden operation to give him a jump on the early season vegetable market. He designed a slope near his house for maximum sun exposure and now vegetables grown there experience "a microclimate equivalent to a site 300 miles to the south." Tomatoes grown on the slope mature 2-3 weeks earlier than those on nearby flat ground.
Bates grows seedless watermelon, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and strawberries, all with drip and sprinkler irrigation. He plants a cover crop of rye and hairy vetch in early September to build his soil fertility for the next year’s crops. He sells his produce at farmers' markets and directly to neighbors.
Bates and Chandler have used IMPACT funds to design a community cooler for vegetable storage. The cooler would help local market gardeners provide locally grown produce during the off-season. Their first design for a solar-powered cooler proved too expensive, so they are now developing a straw-bale cooler with conventional refrigeration.
Other members of the group demonstrate equally innovative practices on their farms. David Hansen operates a 320-acre farm with corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and rye, all grown without pesticides. He also uses an effective, home-built, walk-through flytrap for his cattle. Bryce Ritz raises hogs in hoop structures on his 800-acre farm and livestock operation. Larry and Kim Curtis milk sheep for cheese production. Leon Schweitzer has raised corn, alfalfa, and pinto beans organically for twelve years.
What they do is not strictly for themselves. The group shares its ideas and experiences through tours and field days in the summer. In 1995, they held a Sustainable Ag fair that included a tour of three members’ farms.
The group’s plans for the future are to study the costs and returns of some of these new practices. The group has been active in forming a small business loan association through the Rural Enterprise Assistance Program of the Center for Rural Affairs. Look for more innovations in their future.
Contact: David Hansen, Anselmo, 308-749-2380