GUELPH, Ont. — Farmers who are considering switching to organic crop production may want to invest in a cushy tractor chair because it requires an immense amount of time behind the wheel.
Roger Rivest, who farms organically near Tilbury, Ont., said he or someone on his farm is on a tractor nearly every day from spring till fall.
“I wouldn’t recommend (organic crop production) unless you have a son coming into it because your body takes a pounding,” said Rivest, who farms 900 acres of cropland.
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“You’re on those tractors (all day), with bumps and everything else…. It really wears on you. It’s good for the young guys, who like to run up and down the fields real fast.”
Rivest told the Guelph Organic Conference in late January that organic growers have to stay on top of weeds, which is why they spend the spring and summer pulling a cultivator, rotary hoe or tine weeder behind their tractors.
“You have be ready to be on the tractor long hours for a long season, basically from the time you start working the ground in the spring until you’re basically coming on the combine to do the harvest.”
Rivest said the time commitment would be a significant adjustment for a conventional farmer.
“They’re used to going in and spraying (for weeds)…. If you’re doing tillage or cultivating, it will take you the whole day instead of an hour.”
Terry Good, a crop nutrient distributor, said organic farmers who invest the time and money have weed control options comparable to herbicides.
For example, he showed a photo of an organic soybean crop that looked like a postcard.
“If you look at that field there’s not a weed to be found. That’s all due to … cultivating with the right pieces of equipment.”
Good provided a few tips for success in large-scale organic farming.
“There’s no point in farming organically if you’ve got ground that takes 10 days to dry up…. We’ve got to be in there every X days (to cultivate weeds), and if we’re waiting too long, it’s not going to work.”
“One of things that drives me crazy when I walk onto a farm is when I see a brand new, $100,000 tractor sitting there. Then they show me a $1,500 scuffler they found (by) some fence row.”
Instead, buy a $20,000 tractor and a $50,000 cultivator or tine weeder.
“Without it, it’s a very tiring job.”
robert.arnason@producer.com
