This post was contributed by Dayna Locitzer, a farm apprentice at Glynwood.
The CRAFT workshop for Monday August 9th was held at Four Winds Farm in Gardiner, NY. Four Winds is a 24-acre, certified organic family farm where Jay Armour practices no-till farming.
The goal of organic no-till farming is to leave the soil undisturbed. The common practice of tillage turns topsoil and exposes what’s below. Instead of tilling, Jay uses permanent raised beds, layering them every year with compost and mulch to build up his soil.
Photo courtesy of Four Winds Farm.
Jay began practicing organic no-till farming 16 years ago as a way to eliminate weeds. In fact, it does greatly reduce weeds – because the repeated layering of compost and mulch covers the weed seeds, they are constantly blocked from sunlight which prevents them growing. The weeds that Jay does find are very easy to pull because his soil is very loose. Tilling often creates soil compaction just below the reach of the tiller’s tines. To avoid any compaction at all, Jay is very careful never to step on his beds. As a result, the weeds slip out of his raised beds as if they were in a greased bread pan.
Another advantage of no-till is that it holds organic matter in the soil. Jay told CRAFT that he has 7% organic matter in his soil – a big contrast to the common figure of 1% soil organic matter found on many farms. He says that when tilling exposes soil to air, the oxidation process is sped up and organic matter breaks down faster. With no-till, organic matter is slower to break down, so more of it remains in the soil. That’s good news for the soil, for the plants and veggies, and it also means that carbon is stored in the soil instead of being released into the atmosphere. The soil holds more water too, since it’s not vulnerable to evaporation under all those layers of mulch and compost.
(There’s been a lot of attention paid to no-till farming’s low carbon footprint, but not all no-till practices are equal: some methods avoid tillage but rely on heavy use of herbicides to control weeds. Organic no-till farming, of course, does not use any chemicals at all.)
Jay emphasized that good compost is his key to success. His compost is a combination of horse and cow manure. Jay uses manure from his own cows and gets the horse manure from an operation that’s 7 miles away (following his ethic of sustainability, he drops off a trailer to be filled with manure over the course of a couple days and rides his bike back to Four Winds). His compost sits for one year before he uses it, turning it a few times a month to prepare it. Unfortunately, this is still not enough compost for his 4-acre vegetable operation, so Jay supplements with straw mulch. His most important crops – like his famous heirloom tomatoes – get both compost and mulch.
Any downsides, I asked? Not too many. Jay says he barely uses cover crops because he can’t turn them under like most farmers would. He’s only able to use winter-kill cover crops because anything that lasts through the winter becomes a problem during the next growing season. This doesn’t pose too much of a problem though, since his weed population has been reduced through the years. No-till farming is also labor intensive. Tractors would cause too much compaction in his soil, so Jay and his crew haul garden carts over the beds to distribute the compost. Though arduous, we were assured that this extra effort was well worth it and enjoyed by the farmers at Four Winds.
Jay’s style of farming doesn’t rely on tractors or fuel-thirsty machinery, so his carbon footprint is tiny. At the same time, he’s building healthy soil, sequestering carbon, and growing high-quality, super delicious vegetables! Jay says you can taste the difference – but only a trip to his stall at the Cold Spring or New Paltz farmers markets will let you know for sure.
Photo courtesy of Four Winds Farm.
This post was contributed by Dayna Locitzer, a farm apprentice at Glynwood.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 11:04 am and is filed under CRAFT. You can follow this blog through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
