Experience with University Organic Research Farms

I can’t find my way back to campus !

Dr. Joel GruverSchool of Agriculture

Western Illinois UniversityJ-Gruver@wiu.edu(309) 298 - 1215

Center for Environmental Farming Systems - Goldsboro, NC (2000-2006)Central Carolina Community College Land Lab - Pittsboro, NC (2001-2005)

Hampshire College Farm Center Amherst, MA (1994)

WIU Allison Organic Research Farm Roseville, IL (2007 – 2050 :->)

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Farm manager/instructor, 1994-95

The mission of the Center is to provide students with an experiential education in applied design, invention, and

entrepreneurship through engagement in applied design problem solving for social responsibility.

Farm manager/internship

coordinator/instructor 2000-2006

Instructor 2001-2005

Cheryl was a student in my second class

The WIU Agriculture Department began renting a historically pesticide-free

80 acre farm in 1989.

Multi-year leases have been negotiated in the past but currently we renegotiate our

rent each year.

The WIU/Allison Organic Research Farm is located in southern Warren County, ~ 15 miles north-west of Macomb

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77 acres

No permanent storage structures may be constructed or maintained on the property.

On-farm storage in 2009

Sable silty clay loam

Muscatune silt loam

U of I productivity ratings for the farm’s dominant soils

Corn = 180 bu/acSoybean = 57 bu/ac

Wheat = 68 bu/ac

Corn = 180 bu/acSoybean = 57 bu/ac

Wheat = 68 bu/ac

Neighboring farms have had

whole farm averages > 220

bu/ac for corn in recent years

3-1

5.3 acres

3-2

4.7 acres

3-3

4.7 acres

.

3-4

4.7 acres

4-1

4.7 acres

.

4-2

4.7 acres

4-3

4.7 acres

4-4

4.7 acres

Field 2B (west): (organic) (1.8 acres) Field 2B (east): (org.) (1.5 acres)

│

Field 2A: (organic) (11.5 acres)

Field 1b: (organic) (9 acres)

Field 1a: (organic) (10 acres)

2c: (1 acre)

Far

mst

ead

Pesticide-Free: Fertilized with Conventional Commercial Fertilizers

Organic: Fertilized with Liquid Hog

Manure

Organic: Fertilized with Commercial

Organic Fertilizers

Field Map (2008)

corn

corn

corn

corn

corn

corn

whe

at

whe

at

wheat

cereal rye -> soybean

wheat corn

Corn(rye)

Soybean

Wheat(red clover)

Standard crop rotation

Soybean variety trial

Wh

eat

seve

rely

dam

aged

b

y fl

oo

din

g

Wheat severely damaged by flooding

cereal rye -> soybean

Equipment owned by the WIU Organic Program:

4 row Buffalo ridge-till planter 4 row Buffalo cultivator

10’ Howard rotavatorPropane Flamer11’ rotary hoe

This equipment is stored on neighboring farms during the off-season. One tractor (~ 150 hp) is

rented each season. All other equipment is rented on a short-term basis from neighboring farms.

Purchased in 2008

Equipment rented in 2007

140 HP Agco Tractor190 HP White Tractor

110 HP Case IHTractor55 HP JD Tractor

33 HP Case IH TractorATV with spinner seeder

15’ JD 750 no-till drill20’ Aerway

20’ Flail mower3,000 gallon Honey Wagon

6’ Bush hog mower20’ Batwing mower

20’ Soil Finisher20’ Disk

Gravity wagon

The Agco tractor was rented for the season from a local equipment dealer.All other equipment was rented from local farmers.

Collaboration with neighboring farmers is essential

Neighboring farmers are promptly compensated at rates based on U of I

or IA State Custom rate/Machinery Cost Estimates

We have come a long way in terms

of public perception!

“WIU Agriculture Research technician

Andy Clayton demonstrated the farm’s new Ag Leader guidance system while Crawford and his son took aerial photos of the Allison

Farm using their CropCam plane.”

Local newspaper article about our 2008 summer field day:

Organics = innovation!

Overview of research at the Allison Farm

Early research focused on site characterization (chemical, physical and biological soil properties)

Subsequent research has evaluated the impact of tillage systems, crop rotation, seed treatments, crop varieties, cover crops and soil amendments on agronomic crop yield, seed quality, weed pressure and cropping system economics.

Most but not all research has involved large plots and standard size farm equipment.

Cooperators and Supporters (Past and Current)

Special Recognition:

Doris and Joe FoustOwners of the Allison farm

Dr. Gerald Vigue Retired; Professor of Agriculture at WIU and Program Director of Allison Sustainable

Ag/Organic Research Farm from inception until 2006 Dr. Gerald Carlson

Retired; Chair of WIU School of Agriculture and Director of Mid-West Area ARS-USDA - original project design and data analyses

Dr. Dave JohnstonFormer professor of Agriculture at WIU who located the farm in 1989

Dr. Rick Hirschi Brigham Young University-Idaho; Agriculture Economist- analyzed farm economic data

and conducted an organic farm survey Mr. Tim Howe

Research Associate (1991-2000)

ANDY CLAYTON – Research technician extraordinaire!!

Collaborating farmers

Mr. Mark and Harold Anderson - research ideas, tech support, storage equipment and services

Mr. Kenneth and Jim Anderson- hay services

Mr. Rodney Byers- hay services and equipment rental

Mr. Don Chipman- tech support, equipment and services

Mr. Frank Craver - hay services

Mr. Grant and Ron Curtis - planting, tillage, grain harvest and storage

Mr. Lisle and Gene Dakin - tech support and services

Mr. Terry Davis- past operator of the farm; research ideas, tech support, equipment and services

Mr. Steve Hall- fertilizer application

Mr. Mike Hull - grain harvest

Mr. John Huston- storage for equipment

Mr. Francis, Ed, and Bill Kane - equipment and farm shop rental

Mr. Dan Mowen - grain harvest

Mr. Justin Overstreet - tech support and equipment operation and rental

Mr. Louis and Jeff Reuschel - collaborated on research study

Mr. Bob Strickler- equipment rental and services

Mr. Leroy Tappe - hog manure, tech support and equipment operation and rental

Mr. Pat Thomas - tech support

Mr. Brad Wainman - support, equipment and services

More collaborating farmers

Equipment

A.C. McCartney Farm Equipment - tractor lease

Mr. Curt Dambman - Buffalo Rep- tech support

Mr. Andy Finck - Buffalo Rep- tech support

AGCO Corporation - Massey Ferguson tractor at discounted lease rate, free use of Tye Drill and Paratill subsoiler

Kuhns Equipment - tractor lease

Heritage Equipment- provided discounted lease of equipment

Fleischer Manufacturing, Inc. - provided Buffalo row crop planter at discounted price, technical assistance and training

M&W Gear Company - donated 11 ft, high-residue rotary hoe Guy Machinery – Clyde Morter

- provided a 10-ft Howard Rotavator at discounted lease and tech support Larry Riden - Riden Farm Supply, Inc.

- assisted in the assembly of the Red Baron Flamer and provided the use of an LP tank Flame Engineering, Inc.

-provided a four row flamer at a reduced lease rate and technical assistance

Production Inputs Clarkson Grain Company, Inc.- Roger Hendricker

- provided seed for test plots, marketing support Midwestern Bio-Ag - Bob Yanda

- tech support and at discounted products Blue River Hybrids - Maury Johnson

- provided seed for test plots and contributed to field day Great Harvest Organics

- provided seed for test plots Prairie Hybrid Seeds

- provided seed for test plots Ampac Seed Company- Dave Robison

- provided seed for test plots Midwest Grass & Forage- Scott Jones

- provided seed for test plots and tech support Advanced Biological Marketing

- provided seed inoculant Albert Lea Seed House

- provided seed for test plots Welter Seed & Honey Co.

- provided seed for test plots AgriEnergy Resources - Gary Campbell

- provided organic seed treatment products Nitragin, Inc.- Kyle Luther- provided legume inoculant Agricoat LLC - Todd Zehr

- provided organic seed treatments AgraQuest, Inc.- Brett Highland- provided organic fungicide spray Griffin Industries – Ken Quandt

- donated Nature Safe 13-0-0 fertilizerConAgra Foods/Vogel Seeds

- donated organic popcorn seed

Santa Cruz Natural, Inc.- organic beverages donation for annual field day - http://www.scojuice.com

Stretch Island Fruit, Inc.- organic food donation for annual field day - http://www.stretchislandfruit.com

Dagoba Organic Chocolate- organic food donation for annual field day - http://dagobachocolate.com

Sue Huber, Owner, Sibby's Homestead Organic Ice Cream, Westby, WI-

donated organic ice cream for annual field day - http://www.sibbysicecream.com/index.htm

Lotus Brands, Inc- William Collett- product donation for field day - http://www.lotusbrands.com

AquaRanch Industries- Myles Harston- natural/organic food donation for field day - http://www.aquaranch.com

Dr. Bronner's Organic Soaps- Ralph Bronner- organic products donation for field day - http://www.drbronner.com/

Nutritek, Inc.- Jim Troglia- natural insect repellant donation for field day - http://www.nutritekinc.com

Steaz- Eric Schnell- organic soda donation - http://www.steazteas.com

Oak Grove Organics- provided organic milk for field day - http://www.oakgroveorganics.com

Choice Organic Teas- provided organic tea for field day - http://www.choiceorganicteas.com

Uncle Matt's Organic- provided organic orange juice for field day - http://www.unclematts.com

Blue Sky Beverage Company- provided organic soda for field day - http://www.blueskysoda.com

Organic Food Bar- provided organic food bars for field day - http://www.organicfoodbar.com

Go Macro- provided organic food bars for field day - http://www.gomacro.com

Eden Foods- provided organic food for field day - http://www.edenfoods.com

The Pure Bar- provided organic food bars for field day - http://www.thepurebar.com

Nature's Inventory- provided organic wellness oils for field day - http://www.naturesinventory.com

Good Hope Gardens- provided organic produce for field day - http://www.goodhopegardens.com

Living Earth Farm, Farmington, Illinoia- provided organic produce for field day - http://www.livingearthfarm.com

Barefoot Gardens-Macomb, Illinois- provided organic produce for field day

Indian Creek Farm-Jacksonville, Illinois- provided organic stew meat for field day

Roger Hendricker Farm-Arenzville, Illinois- provided organic melons for field day

A-maizing Corn Products-Janesville, Wisconsin- provided organic blue corn chips for field day

Annie Moore & Family- Macomb, Illinois- field day meal preparation

Amelia & Charlie Fox- Macomb, Illinois- field day meal preparation

Hy-Vee- Macomb, Illinois- catering for field day and product donation

West Prairie Farm, Macomb, Illinois- Provided grass-fed beef franks and hamburgers for field day

Field Day Supporters/Product Donors

Miscellaneous

Mr. Steve Elmer- USDA-NRCS Soil Scientist- soil mapping and technical support

Western Illinois Sustainable Agriculture SocietyCooperating farmer members

Duane Mansir and Rick Winbigler McDonough and Warren Co. Soil and Water Conservation Districts-

- day support, use of a ridge-till cultivator and guidance system Kent Woodford- Seeds and More, Inc.-

consulted in crop management and weigh wagon use Mike Ward- Pioneer A DuPont Company-

Sales Rep-provided seed for test plots Key Agricultural Services, Inc.- GPS analysis, crop and soil analysis

Shawn Jones- Pioneer A DuPont Company- Agronomist- provided seed for test plots

Rex Johnson- Pioneer A DuPont Company- Sales Rep- provided use of weigh wagon

Glen Barber- Beck's Hybrids- District Sales Rep- provided use of weigh wagon and field day support

Nature Safe 13-0-0

Most of the inputs that we evaluate are

donated or provided at a significant

discountbut

little funding is provided to support

research

Detailed Enterprise Budgets

Revenue (e.g., crop sales and government payments)Expenses (e.g., seed, fertility inputs, field operations, grain hauling)

Net income (not including cash rent)

- calculated on a per acre basis for most fieldssince 2000.

Field # 4-1 Planted 6/8/06, 30” rows Notes

Management Conventional Till;Commercial organic fertilizers

Corn–Soybean-Wheat/clover rotation

Soybean Yield 36 bu/acre Variety: “ J-30” from Clarkson Grain

Revenue

Soybean Sales $488.88/acre $14.75/bu (food-grade contract) (actual price paid = $13.58/bu)

Govt. Payment $31.63/acre DCP = $18.48/ac & CC = $13.15/ac

Total Revenue $520.51/acre

Expenses

Seed: Soybeans Rye

$0/acre Free from Clarkson Grain for contract

$11.34/acre 81 lb/ac @ $0.14/lb

Fertilizer(s) $24.96/acre Amortized cost of previous applications

Field operations $117.80/acre (no-till rye 11/05 = $12.65) (disk 2X = $18.10) (soil finish = $9.20) (plant = $11.45) (rotary hoe 2X = $11.40) (cultivate 2X = $15) (walk beans $15)(harvest = $25)

Grain Hauling $0/acre FOB

Total expenses $154.10/acre

Net Income $366.41/acre

2006 budget

10 - 15 soybean varieties and 4-6 corn hybrids are evaluated each year

What crop is this?

Field Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense)

World’s first N rate study on field pennycress

4 reps x 5 rates

0 > 25 > 50 = 75 = 100 lbs N/acre

Field Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense)

World’s first N rate study on field pennycress ???

4 reps x 5 rates

0 > 25 > 50 = 75 = 100 lbs N/acre

Cover crop experiment at the WIU/Allison Farm

Forage radish drilled 1st week of

August ’07 following wheat

Early January 2008

The experiment was planted to corn

Blue River 66P32 30,000 seeds/acre on May 29 2008

No N was added

Weed pressure was lower in the solid

radish plots but there were no clear

differences with respect to crop

appearance

Treatment Rep Yield monitor

(bu/acre) Trt Averageclover/oats 1 160.3clover/oats 2 164.3 160.8clover/oats 3 157.9

clover/radish 1 170.6clover/radish 2 178.4 174.6clover/radish 3 174.7

clover/radish/oats 1 179.0clover/radish/oats 2 191.4 170.2clover/radish/oats 3 140.4

radish 1 187.0radish 2 178.7 183.5radish 3 184.8

Some very interesting yield results !!

Treatment Rep Weigh wagon

(bu/acre) Trt Averageclover/oats 1 132.1clover/oats 2 133.9 131.9clover/oats 3 129.6

clover/radish 1 137.2clover/radish 2 144.7 142.2clover/radish 3 144.7

clover/radish/oats 1 145.4clover/radish/oats 2 156.5 139.5clover/radish/oats 3 116.5

radish 1 150.4radish 2 147.5 149.0radish 3 149.0

Some very interesting yield results !!slightly less impressive

but more realistic

Some contrasts are significant at 0.05

Tillage System experiment

Conventional tillMinimum till

No-till

Established in fall 08

October 2009

November 2009

January 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

Late May 2009

Early June 2009

~1 week after planting

~2 weeks after planting

July 2009

Early August 2009

Late August 2009

Late September 2009

2 days ago

Early September 2009

Tillage radish on 30” rows with oats in inter-row

2 days ago

Tillage radish on 7.5” rows (~ 10 lbs/ac)

2 days ago

Where are the soybeans??

Traditional organic weed management often comes up short during wet years

2010 Field Day theme = Systems Strategies for Weed Management

New experiment comparing organic no-till vs. organic ridge-till soybeans

Our latest purchase??

Our summer intern borrowed this 24’ Salford RTS

so that we could demo it :->

Student involvement with the Allison Farm

Brent Bowen – 2009 Summer Intern

2 “Twilight Tours” in 2008 and 3 in 2009 brought over 100 people to the farm

including over 60 students and 20 farmers

IL State Rep Rich Myers

So why did so many students with conventional ag backgrounds decide to come out to an organic research farm?

I talk about and show pics of the farm in every class!

WIU Cover Crop Innovator Project

Student: Which cover crops have you tried? how many acres? following/preceding which crops?

Joe Nester replied:

We just inter-seeded 14,000 acres of corn andsoybeans with annual rye. We used a helicopter service out of Minnesota to seed it. We have used annual rye a year ago, seeding with drills after wheat and soybeans, but the planting date was too late to wait after beans. Excellent where seeded after wheat about Sept. 1. Our experience is limited, but the idea is really taking off, to hold the soil in place over the winter, keep nutrients within the field, and help with timely no-till planting in the spring.

Continuous no-till corn planted into hairy vetch

Terry Taylor’s farmGeff, IL

http://talk.newagtalk.com/

5 of the “Cover Crop Innovators” and 3 of the

student interviewers attended our 2009 Summer Field Day

If you can’t get the farmers to come to your farm, bring your students to the farmers…

Teaching methods

Building learning communities of agricultural innovators

INNOVATION

Farming practicesResearch

ORGANIC

You are all invited to attend the WIU Allison Organic Farm field day in

August 2010 (or visit any other time).

Any questions?