FROM THE GROUND UP
Agronomy News

Alternative Agriculture

Project aims to improve communication and cooperation
with alternative producers.

Over the last couple of years there has been a joint project between CSU
and the Colorado Organic Producers Association (COPA) that was funded
by the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.
The goal of this project was to improve communication and cooperation
between the land grant university and organic and alternative producers
in Colorado. We have been working towards these goals through four
regional Alternative Agriculture Advisory Teams in the East, Front
Range, West, and South Central parts of the state. The advisory teams
established a dialogue on research and extension needs (both production
and marketing), and identified regional priorities within the alternative
agriculture arena. Student interns worked on the producer-identified
priorities in the summertime in conjunction with a local CSU extension
or experiment station faculty member, an on-campus faculty member, and
producers.
This issue focuses on the results from the regional alternative agriculture
projects, as well as other CSU efforts in alternative agriculture. See
the COPA website (www.OrganicColorado.org) to access PowerPoint
presentations, enterprise budgets, and factsheets developed as part of this
project.

Front Range: Spinach Seed Trials
Frank Stonaker of the CSU Specialty Crops Program provided this summary of the Front Range project: One of the areas of interest and concern indicated by growers attending the Alternative Ag meetings in the Front Range was performance of organic seed compared to conventionally produced seed. USDA organic rules require growers to use organic seed if it is available, but seed companies have been slow to fill this new demand for a number of reasons. Seed quality and variety performance is of course very important to the success of organic growers, and as growers experiment with seed from new sources, or even established sources that are just beginning to move into organic seed, there have been some bumps along the road. Varieties that have performed very well with conventional seed treatment, and conventional production, may not be as well adapted to organic seed production, seed treatment, or organic farm production. The 2004 planting yielded some preliminary results, but not sufficient to draw definitive conclusions. More varieties were planted as a follow-up in 2005, but disease prevented meaningful results. A Fall 2005 planting is currently planned, and the
investigation will continue.

Eastern Plains: Cover Crops, Green Manures, and Crop Residues
The Eastern Plains group identified cover crops, green manures, and crop residues as their project topic. Bob Burris, working with Bruce Bosley of CSU Cooperative Extension, interviewed area producers and compiled the results, summarized here by Bruce: Twenty-two farmers in Northeastern Colorado were interviewed on their use of and experience with cover crops, green manures, and crop residues. Benefits cited included enhancing soil organic matter, weed suppression, soil erosion protection,
harboring beneficial insects, added fertility from green manure, and enhanced crop microclimate. Eighteen farmers used green manures and cover crops while five
used crop residues. The benefits listed by farmers for cover crops were: fertility,
organic matter, erosion control, soil protection, and harboring insects (see pie chart). Similarly the disadvantages to cover cropswere as follows: water use – 9%, rotational difficulties – 9%, time, labor, and field work – 9%, and lack of direct financial return – 5%.

Overall, respondents indicated that benefits outweighed the challenges. In a continuing effort, Bruce Bosley continues to provide education to and partnering with crop producers on no-till crop rotation farming systems. Many dryland crop producers have realized the advantage to these systems that maintain crop residues on the soil surface. The advantages to no-till crop rotations include increasing precipitation capture and retention, improving soil health especially soil organic matter and soil structure, providing more stable income through diversifying crop enterprises, and a higher annual
percentage of harvestable acres.

Western Slope: Organic Weed Management
The Western Slope group settled on organic weed management options as its project focus. The idea was to compile information on organic methods that could be used to control several of the most troublesome weeds in Western Colorado. The draft factsheets were then reviewed by several local producers and agents. Fact sheets were developed by Sarah Doyle, Micaela Morgan, and Sandra McDonald for the following
weeds:
Canada Thistle
Diffuse Knapweed
Hoary Cress
Field Bindweed
Quackgrass
Russian Knapweed

After a description of the weeds’ impacts, propagation, and habits, control methods are addressed including: hand weeding; mechanical techniques, such as cultivation and mowing; biological controls; cultural practices such as steam weeding, competitive
plantings, and grazing; and organic herbicides. The six Organic Weed Management factsheets are located on the Colorado State University Colorado Environmental Pesticide Education Program website found at this address:http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/ SoilCrop/extension/CEPEP/organic.htm

San Luis Valley: Enterprise Budgets for Grass-fed Cattle
The San Luis Valley group decided to work on marketing and production of grass-fed beef that is becoming increasingly popular with growers in that area. Dawn Thilmany, Extension Marketing Specialist, supervised grad student, Josh Wilson, in conducting the analysis. Their work is reported in a CSU Extension publication:“Enterprise Budgeting: An Application to San Luis Valley Grass-Fed Cattle Operations,” which makes the following points:
1) assessing the stage of production that secures the greatest returns is one possible outcome from budget planning,
2) the San Luis Valley regionhas a comparative advantage at the cow-calf stage of
production, and
3) enterprise budgeting is a necessary step in production and market planning.
The report is available in full on the internet at: http://dare.agsci.colostate.edu/csuagecon/extension/documents/PFM-05-01.pdf
In order to start addressing the group’s questions about the marketing of grass-fed beef, pertinent questions were added to a survey that was part of an ongoing natural beef study. Once the regional group has a chance to review the results of this and similar studies being conducted by Dawn Thilmany, they should be in a position to indicate what questions remain about how they can successfully pursue grass-fed beef
enterprises in the Valley.

Jim Dyer, Colorado Organic Producers Association
and
Jessica Davis, Extension Soil Specialist, CSU