Belvedere Plantation:
From Concrete to Conviction 
by Vicki Dunaway
(This article is excerpted from Farming More Sustainable in the South, Vol II: More Farmers' Stories, published by the Southern SAWG in 1996.)  
 
FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia--A Kick in the Seat of the Pants and A Whack on the Side of the Head (both by Roger von Oech) were just a couple of the intriguing titles of the books that lined the shelves of the office at Belvedere Plantation. While waiting for M.R. Fulks to finish some important business before our interview, I also noted a dozen or so plaques and trophies, many of them first prizes for wheat and corn yields - one a national trophy for corn production!

The national trophy was won in 1982, while the farm was still in conventional production, but not long after that Belvedere Plantation experienced a firm whack on the side of the head. In the mid-80s, the Wickham loam Altavista soil became "glue when it was wet and concrete when it was dry." A disk passed through the soil would leave an indention that remained intact. Added fertilizers and other amendments (a "300-bushel program," as recommended by the experts) did nothing to improve yields, which had dropped dramatically. Strawberries, a major crop for the farm, had developed a severe black root rot problem and fruit rots; the fruit ripened prematurely and stayed green inside, with quantity losses of up to 50 percent. Experts from Virginia Tech and a corn specialist from as far away as Nebraska just scratched their heads, bewildered.

M.R. Fulks and his son Donnie, owners of Belvedere Plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia, were about to give up on strawberries entirely, and were confounded as to the cause and cure of their soil compaction problems. Then, in 1987, M.R. attended a Pro Farmer Conference which, he said, changed his way of thinking. Pro Farmer is the country's largest farm marketing and news advisory service; in 1985, they started offering renewable farming seminars for large-scale farmers. Fulks made several new contacts at one of these seminars and heard one speaker who impressed him greatly. 

Comprehensive Soil Improvement Program 

The speaker, Carroll Montgomery of the Christian Agriculture Stewardship Institute (CASI) in Dexter, Missouri, had too many clients at the time and was not available that year for consulting; instead, M.R. found a couple of other consultants at the conference who would visit his farm. Their recommendations, he said, were good but "complicated--they talked 'in the clouds,' and couldn't show me how to get from here to there." They made some progress in the following couple of years, but following a CASI field day in 1991, Fulks finally got a chance to speak with Carroll Montgomery; she took one look at the farm's soil test results, which Fulks had brought with him, and told M.R. that he had "no energy in the soil."

Fulks had been instructed by other consultants to add a huge amount of calcium to the soil, and the calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium and salt were way out of proportion relative to other elements on the soil test. [Interestingly, excess magnesium causes the soil to tighten up and increases weed and grass pressures.] The hydrogen value on his test was zero. The other excessive cations had taken all the cation sites in the soil, and it was "like trying to run a battery with no acid." The strawberries, Montgomery said, thought they were going to die and matured too quickly. Fulks had already noted that there were no earthworms in the soil and suspected that the soil microorganisms had been killed off by years of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

That year a consultant from the Christian Agriculture Stewardship Institute came to Belvedere Plantation, and the farm went 100 percent on the CASI program. CASI's method promises a 25 percent savings in chemical costs from the start, using the simple technique of acidifying the water to make the chemicals work more efficiently. Fulks applied an "energy package"--food for the microbes--to his fields in the fall to aid in digestion of crop residues and unlock tied-up nutrients. The energy package consisted of a low-heat sugar (high heat destroys enzymes), "biologicals," sulfur, lime and gypsum, the latter three to cleanse the soil of toxins and make it a conducive environment for the organisms.

The soil improvement program at Belvedere also includes rotations and cover crops. Sudex and legumes are turned into the soil. Rye is aerial-seeded into standing soybeans in late September for a winter cover. The soybeans are harvested in November and the rye has a good start by then. Four years ago the Fulks began looking into compost, and two years ago began composting by the Luebke method from Austria. Animals are not a component of the farm, and the Fulks have brought in manure on occasion, but find they are able to get satisfactory compost from their crop residues--Sudex, rye straw, wheat straw, clover--and a biological starter. In winter, Fulks said, manure is more important to get the compost to heat properly. He attributes to compost the fact that they didn't have to use fungicides on their strawberries this year, despite a wet spring.

Last year, Fulks made an investment in an Imants spade tillage plow from Europe, which finishes tillage in one pass and leaves residues near the surface so that they can be aerobically decomposed. Disease-causing anaerobic organisms often cause residues buried deep in the soil to ferment rather than decompose. Spade tillage encourages quick breakdown of the residues, especially when an energy package is added. An additional benefit to the Imants plow is that seeding can be accomplished right behind the plow. Formerly, the Fulks used a Dyna-Drive tool by Hart-Carter to mix in residues, which M.R. says is the "next best thing" to the Imants.

The Imants spade plow was used on a small test field in 1994 to incorporate a heavy cover crop and a strong biological appplication. To their amazement, the organic matter increased from 2.25 percent to 3.5 percent, with an increase in humus levels also in just three months. The Imants spade plow is the only soil working tool that incorporates heavy crop residues deeply and allows oxygen to get into soil so crop residues can be digested into humus. It took three years to get the soil in reasonable balance, but now the soil is in much better shape. Especially in drought years, their organic fields consistently out-yield conventional fields just across the fence. Fulks points out that excessive salt absorbs much of the soil's moisture; "It's like eating Virginia ham; a lot of salt makes you thirsty." 

Diverse Marketing Strategies--From Roadside to International Markets 

Belvedere Plantation has been able to obtain organic certification from both the Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) and the Virginia Association of Biological Farmers (VABF); both certifications are valuable, depending on the markets. This is no small feat for a farm this size in the South. Belvedere Plantation has 1200 acres in crop production (owned and leased), including 700 acres in soybeans, nearly 100 acres in irrigated corn, 18 acres of strawberries, and the remainder in vegetables, grains and cover crops.

When asked about no-till corn (for which there were several trophies in the room), Fulks said that he once used no-till, but found that this practice resulted in high disease and pest residue problems. He pointed out an article to me in Pro Farmer about gray leaf spot in corn, which is now so widespread and troublesome that many farmers are taking corn on marginal land out of no-till because of disease pressures.

Formerly, corn production on the farm was about 500 acres, and at one time they grew organic popcorn for the health food market. However, the market was somewhat erratic and the popcorn was dropped.

Belvedere's marketing strategy is highly diversified, from person-to-person sales of produce, bedding plants, container plants, perennials and herbs at its own roadside stand, to international sales of organic soybeans to a lucrative Japanese soy products market for making tofu, natto ("like potatoes to us"), and soy milk. Some of the varieties of soybeans are grown for these markets. The organic corn is sold to organic livestock feeders.

Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and pumpkins are mostly pick-your-own. M.R. estimates that 40,000 people come to the farm during pumpkin season, including busloads of school children who get an educational on-farm experience along with their hayrides and pumpkins. There is an emphasis on family fun, making a trip to the farm a day's outing. There are even "jam making videos" for customers who need to learn that skill. Lying an hour from Washington, D.C., an hour from Richmond and just minutes away from Fredericksburg, Belvedere Plantation has no problem attracting customers. About half their customers come from within 20 miles and the rest from 40-60 miles away.

Surprisingly, in this heavily traveled corridor just a few miles from Interstate 95, development pressure is not yet a big issue, but Fulks notes the newest suburbs are being built only a half mile away.

The farm employs three people full time--M.R., his wife Judy and his son Donnie; about half a dozen part-time people in spring and summer; and up to 75 part-timers during busy pick-your-own seasons. M.R.'s father originally purchased the land in 1968, and they went back and forth between Belvedere and a couple thousand acres they were farming near Gaithersburg, Maryland. However, the Gaithersburg area soon became an "urban environment," and M.R. and family moved to the Virginia farm in 1972. His father retired in the late 1980s.

With good reason, M.R. Fulks is pleased with the way Belvedere Plantation has progressed since its beginnings in the late '60s. He is now a firm believer in organic/biological production and highly recommends the CASI plan for large-scale farmers who want to switch to biological farming but don't know "how to get from here to there."