Farming

Organic Dairy Farming Struggles To Keep Up With Demand

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Tom Meersman ~ Mark Wickenhauser stood in the doorway of his weathered 1910 barn and viewed the dark soil that will soon sprout a pasture rich with alfalfa and other grasses. He has worked all his life at the family dairy farm near Cologne in Carver County but switched from conventional to organic farming in 2005.

“It wasn’t the popular thing to do, but I guess I didn’t care,” he said. “It just made a lot of sense to me.”

organic dairyOrganic dairy has come a long way since then. Americans spent more than $5 billion on organic dairy products in 2014, with double-digit annual growth during much of the past decade, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Supply has not been able to keep up with demand, especially during the past year, said Meg Moynihan, organic program administrator for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

“I am hearing from just about everybody that supply is very tight, that all of the dairy processing companies are looking for new farmers and that they’re having trouble filling their orders with retailers,” she said.

Shelf space for organic dairy increasing

Luke Friedrich, spokesman for Cub Foods, said demand for organic products is strong at Cub’s 76 stores in Minnesota. In January, the company expanded its Wild Harvest organic line and shelf space, he said, because customers want more organic products.

Most Cub stores have two or more cases of organic milk, Friedrich said, in addition to organic butter, eggs and other products. Continue reading →

Sustainability On Steroids: Organic Farmer Grosses $100K An Acre

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“3 main rules of soil health: Keep roots in the ground as much as possible, keep the soil covered as much as possible, and disturb the soil as little as possible.” – C Sarich

We need GMOs to feed the world like a fish needs dry land. A controversial farmer in California is proving that a veritable bumper crop can be had using new farming methods that don’t require GMO pesticides, herbicides, or even weeding, and require 10 times less water than the average farm. The best part – he earned $100K per acre last season without even harvesting all of his land.

What kind of super-fertilizer allows Paul Kaiser to grow so much food on a mere 8 acres? Lot’s of rotten food scraps and rotten plants – otherwise known as compost. And he uses loads of it.

He uses farming practices (both old and cutting-edge) so well that agricultural specialists from University of California at Davis who have tested his top soil can drive a four-foot steel pole all the way through his fields. This, as opposed to most parts of California, where it would hit infertile hard-pan in less than 12 inches.

Last year, Kaiser’s farm located in Sonoma Valley, CA grossed more than $100,000 an acre, too. This is ten times the average for most farmers of this area, even in lucrative wine-country. Continue reading →