Meeting the Challenge of Organics
by Keith Richards 
(Original story is from Southern Sustainable Farming, issue no. 7, September 1995, published by Southern SAWG.) 
 
When Steve McKaskle decided to put a few acres of his Missouri Delta farm into organic production five years ago, positive response was not exactly overwhelming. As Steve says, "It's a challenge to farm organically. It's a challenge with your own family, with your farm manager, and with your banker."

Steve, who holds a day job as an investment broker, knew he wanted to try organic farming as soon as he heard about an organic cotton meeting initiated by Tennessee farmer Lorna McMahon. "I've been one not to be afraid to try something different," he says. But getting the people around him to support the idea was another matter.

His wife Kaye; her father Joe Bob Coppage, who they rent land from; his farm manager Tom Felker; and their banker all had to be convinced to go along with the plan. They gave their support grudgingly at first, then a terrible weed problem in the second year brought out the resistance again. Slowly Steve has had to win them over by developing production systems that work and finding premium markets for their crops.

Now Steve, Tom and two other employees farm 250 of their 1100 acres organically, and they are increasing the organically managed land by 40-60 acres every year. Steve is determined to show other farmers in the bootheel of Missouri that farming cotton, soybeans, spelt, and buckwheat organically not only can be done, but can make them money.  

Creating Healthy Soil 

One of the keys to success for all organic growers is to create the best conditions possible for healthy plants. At McKaskle Farm this starts with building the health of their soil through composting, soil balancing, crop rotations, and cover cropping.

For every 500 lbs of lint and 1000 lbs of seed ginned at a cotton mill, there will be about 100 lbs of trash. At Steve's local gin in Braggadocio these mountains of trash used to be burned. Now the trash is taken to McKaskle Farm to be composted in windrows and spread back onto the fields. This increases the quality of the soil structure as well as the fertility of their fields. "We're putting compost on at three tons to the acre, some at planting time and some in the winter," Steve says. "It's high in nitrogen. It's great stuff."

To make better use of this resource, he has started to use the Lubke method of composting. This is a method of guiding the process to produce the most nutritious compost possible, full of microbial life. Also, he has applied for a grant to buy a composting machine that will aerate the trash as it turns the windrows. This will cut their composting time in half--to less than six weeks.

Through soil balancing, Steve will attempt to monitor all the soil nutrients essential for plant growth and development, and strive to bring them into balance throughout the farm. This means only applying nutrients that each area of a field needs instead of broadcasting a generic fertilizer mix. He says, "On one 40-acre field, we may treat it eight different ways. It'll be intense soil management. I love doing that kind of stuff." 

Rotations 

His rotation plan helps bring soil nutrients into balance, too. "We want to put half of the organic land in a winter (cash) crop," Steve says. "We have been using spelt, and will try some oats this fall." They have been harvesting this crop in June and plowing the field through the year to suppress weeds. In 1995, for the first time, they followed the spelt with 60-day buckwheat that will be harvested in October.

"Our other winter ground will be sown with rye and vetch," he says. "The key to this whole thing is the vetch. The taller the vetch, the better for the soil. Studies have shown that 10-12" high vetch will produce 40 lbs of N per acre, while 20" high vetch will produce up to 70 lbs per acre." By waiting until late March to plow these cover crops under, they get everything they can out of them before the fields are prepared for either soybeans or cotton.

This year they raised 175 acres of white cotton, nine acres each of red, green, brown and mauve cotton, and 45 acres of pearl soybeans. Eventually he wants to grow specialty soybeans on 1/4 of the organically managed land and cotton on another 1/4 in any given year, adjusting them according to anticipated pest pressure. Steve says, "If we have another mild winter I'll put more in soybeans next year because the boll weevil will be bad." 

Beating Pests & Weeds Without Chemicals 

Cotton is their most difficult crop to manage organically because of pest and weed pressures. Since they choose not to use chemical herbicides to control weeds, they spend a great deal of time on pre-plant preparation at McKaskle Farm. After they turn under the previous winter's cover crop, they disc the ground, then build up beds 38" across. This helps the soil warm up quicker, holds moisture in during dry times, and keeps the seed row out of flooding if it rains.

Next, they knock the top half of the bed off and run a ripper down the middle to break up the hard pan. After this, they rotary hoe to kill the weeds that have germinated. Then they make the rows and knock them half way down again. All this equipment work makes the beds as free of weeds as possible and assures good soil-to-seed contact so the cotton germinates before the next round of weeds.

At planting, they use a squeeze pump to apply a starter fertilizer mix of fish emulsion, a microbial packet, BIOS, and fructose sugar in the rows. Steve says, "This acts as a nitrogen source and gets microbial life going." The goal is to have the cotton germinate within five days, since timing is crucial.

As soon as the cotton comes up, they run a rotary hoe over the beds very fast to keep the weeds from getting started. They plant a little heavier to compensate for a few plants this kicks out. From germination until "lay by" (when the cotton plants form a canopy over the weeds), they precision cultivate mechanically and by hand. Steve hires as many as 20 people to chop cotton several times during the season. "I try to get every weed I can," he says, "but you can't get them all."

Pests, on the other hand, are usually easier to deal with. "We're far enough north that we don't have the insect pressure that they have even one hour south of us," Steve says.

He and Tom scout their fields for pests and wait until populations reach economic thresholds before resorting to organically approved treatments. According to Steve, "Aphids were a problem one year, but we waited and a natural fungus wiped them out." Their biggest problem this year was damage by thrips right after the seedlings emerged from the ground. They applied M-pede (a biological soap made by Micogen) several times to knock them back. Next year Steve says he'll be ready with a stronger control if the thrips return.

Boll weevils, the bane of cotton growers elsewhere, haven't been too bad. "Normally we don't have a problem because winter will knock them back," he says. For the most part they get by with bait sticks placed around the fields. The bait sticks have a pheromone that attracts the weevil to malathion on the stick. This method uses chemicals, but doesn't get any on the ground or on plants.

Since they don't use chemical defoliants to strip the leaves and open the bolls at harvest time, they have to pick the fields two or three times. The first pass pricks the bolls and opens them up for the next pass of the harvester.

Pursuing Markets 

Steve obviously enjoys the challenge of figuring out new systems presented by organic production. He gets even more excited though when he talks about marketing. "With conventional cotton, you just sell it to the buyer and deliver to the gin--that's it," he says. "With organic, you have to contract for trucking and get it to a mill." Its a real challenge.

Lorna McMahon found a market for his cotton the first year, then he found his own thereafter. He began making contacts with buyers, diligently following every lead. "We've made a strong effort to be at functions where people who buy our crops will be," he says. Trade shows and conferences provided information as well as valuable connections.

"In the Bible it says "Seek and you will find,"" quotes Steve, who is also a lay minister. "That really is the way things work. If you make a plan and follow through, you can make things happen."

So far, they're saving the spelt to build up their supply of seed. All of their other crops are sold on contract to several different buyers before they are planted. Steve's goal is to get $1.25/lb for the cotton and expects prices much higher than conventional for the beans and grains. In fact, he says, "I got established in grains just in case the cotton market falls apart." 

Leading By Example 

Five years into the transition, Steve's banker is now solidly behind him because, "I don't exaggerate anything. I let him know we can sell everything on the conventional market if needed. And easing in helped. By not adding too many acres at a time, it lessened our risk."

His next goal is to cut his acreage back to about 600-700, all organically managed. In fact, Steve says, "I'm just about ready to let the conventional cotton on rented land go. Its just too much risk, too much headache. Forget the gross, the net is what counts." 

In a short time McKaskle Farms has managed to provide a successful example of organic production in the upper Delta. Steve McKaskle will continue to push on for himself and others. "What I'm trying to accomplish on a larger scale, is to show my neighbors that sustainable agriculture really works."