Stockfree organic cereals

Learning from commercial organic growers

By Rod Skinner

We all love our stockfree organic fruit and vegetables. With access to even the smallest plot its so satisfying to grow at least some of what we eat. However, most of us also consume cereals, whether as bread, biscuits or beer. Cereals are important for food security because long-term storage is easy, famously allowing a nation to survive 7 years of poor harvests... I spent 30 years in the brewing industry, which uses the enzymes of malt (sprouted cereals) to convert starch into sugars and then uses yeast to ferment these sugars into alcohol. In Europe, malt is mostly made from barley, but wheat is also used to some extent. I worked in Botswana for a few years, where I made malt with sorghum. I tried a number of varieties, but none performed as well as the local landrace (see Editors note below) Id not heard of any cereals being grown stockfree organic, except for rye as an over-winter green manure. Although I no longer work in brewing, I have retained my interest in cereals and have tried growing them on a garden scale a few times, with mixed results. I needed to find out more... National Organic Cereals 2010 was held on July 10 at Fullerton Farms near Andover, just over 50 miles from where I live, so I decided to go along and find out how commercial

organic cereal growing operates. Hopefully, we could then work out how to grow cereals stockfree. To reduce food miles, it would be best if our cereals could be grown locally on a smaller scale.

Commercial organic methods

Commercial growing does not stand still and they have adopted some of the techniques we might have thought of as ours! Reduced tillage is being adopted (mostly because of rising energy costs) and machinery manufacturers are responding. The growing of clover is popular and a machinery manufacturer was showing a seeder that cuts thin slots into a bed of clover and drops cereal seed directly into the slots (see editors note). I was shocked to hear lobbying by the organic milk producers! They want to source more cattle food from this country because they can make certain that it is organic. They were trying to persuade growers with clover not to cut and mulch it, but to make it into hay or silage and sell it to them! Most organic cereal growers include a period of grazing by animals in their crop rotation. However, VON member John Berry, who farms 56 acres in East Sussex, shows that this is unnecessary! His rotation is: 2 years red clover (which he then ploughs in), 1 year winter wheat, 1 year winter oats, 1 year field beans, 1 year wheat.

Weed surfer, not usually found at the beach! Photo by Rod Skinner

Varieties
Back at Fullerton Farms, we were shown their seed trials: neat rows of different varieties of wheat, barley, oats, rye, spelt and triticale. From the results of these trials they would be recommending certain varieties to organic growers for next year. As with the rotation quoted above, the seed trials showed a marked emphasis on winter (usually sown at the beginning of October) cereals, rather than spring-sown varieties. I am not sure that this is wise because the recommended winter wheat varieties have only medium resistance to fungal diseases. Fortunately the most popular wheat variety among millers and bakers (Paragon) has high resistance and is recommended

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GGI No 26 Winter 2010

for spring sowing. However, there is another approach, rather similar to the sorghum landrace I mentioned earlier. Ive seen seed trials before and have always been a bit of a sceptic...fine for the seed houses and the researchers careers, but actually a monument to monoculture... I always remember reading about the Irish famine, where the whole country grew just one variety of potato, which was then wiped out by a disease to which it had no resistance. I was therefore very happy to find the stall of The Organic Research Centre,Elm Farm, and learn about their Adaptive Winter Wheat Project. They have taken 20 varieties of wheat and crossed them in every combination possible. With such a high genetic diversity the crop will be more resilient to pests, diseases and climatic variability. You can download a pdf file about the project at tinyurl.com/35fh7sa But the printed leaflet they gave me is more readable (contact me and Ill send you a copy).

Ways with weeds

Touring the farm, we saw some good crops (despite the lack of rain). Previously Id only seen conventional cereal farms that use regular herbicide sprays. Compared to these, the organic cereals obviously had weeds, but these contributed to biodiversity and attracted beneficial wildlife, while still allowing a good crop. There are problems though: some weed seeds can be toxic. Good screening can remove most weed seeds, but is an extra expense; it is far better to reduce the problem at source by managing the soil seed-bank with shallow tillage.

The seed planter. Photo by Rod Skinner

VON member John Berry farms 56 acres stockfree and certified organic in East Sussex, showing that animal inputs are unnecessary!
The Weed Surfer (CTM Harpley Eng. Ltd.) is a very simple idea. It is basically a multi-head rotary lawnmower that is set a lot higher than normal lawnmowers! It is available in 6.4m or 8.9m cutting widths and has wheels for towing lengthwise, as shown in the picture; the width reduces the number of passes required. In use, the wheels are removed and it is attached at the centre to the tractors Power Take Off. A light tractor can be used because it only skims above the crop and cuts the green tips of a few weeds before seed has set, therefore power usage is low and soil compaction is reduced.

in France could be of more interest because it involves winter wheat growing in white clover. However, it is much more radical than just that. It uses old long-straw wheat varieties that are sown in June, but not harvested until August the following year. Of course that means sowing before the previous years crop has been harvested. Seed is sown verythinly 600mm apart in each direction (about 3 per square metre, whereas conventionally it could be 300!) Such wide spacing minimises competition between plants, enabling much better root development before the winter. The plants are more like bushes and each can produce more than 100 ears, so the overall yield is high: up to 16 tonnes per hectare is claimed.

Editors notes
1. Mechanical seeders that will plant into green manures have great potential for (relatively) large-scale stockfree organic growing. Types of machine are available that will plant many different seeds, thus green manure beds can be utilised without deep tilling more efficient, beneficial to the soil and the environment because less carbon is released. They do need a large tractor to pull them but such equipment can be shared between farmers as happens with combine harvesters. More details of one such machine are provided at techmagriuk.co.uk/simtech.htm 2. On the subject of perennial wheat, there is more information at landinstitute.org and a video on the latest developments in perennial wheat at tinyurl.com/3a6qfru 3. Landrace generally any local variety of plant species that has a long history of local cultivation and seed production, is well adapted to local environmental conditions, and has not been produced by deliberate crossing of specific characteristics but is maintained by continual regeneration of seed by local farmers. Contact Rod at rodskinner@phonecoop.coop.
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What of the future?

Permaculture researchers have suggested that it might be possible to breed varieties of cereals that are perennial try to imagine a cereal with the vigour of couch grass that produces a crop of grain every year with no need for ploughing! Meanwhile there have been two successful approaches to growing annual cereals in a bed of clover without any ploughing. In southern Japan, Masanobu Fukuoka, in his book The One Straw Revolution described how he did this with rice in the summer, followed by barley in the winter. For those of us in cooler climates, the system developed by Marc Bonfils
GGI No 26 Winter 2010