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Carmen Fernholz
Madison, Minnesota
SUMMARY
• Diversified crops on 350 acres
of a 410-acre farm
• Barley, oats, wheat, flax, corn, soybeans and alfalfa grown organically
• Feeder-to-finish hog operation, 800 to 1,200 butchers sold annually
BACKGROUND
When faced with a choice to get bigger
or cut his cost of production, Fernholz chose to trim his inputs, convert to
organic crop farming and revamp his marketing strategies. In 1994, he became
certified after more than 20 years of experimenting and learning about which
methods would work best. Now he grows diverse field crops and raises feeder-to-finish
hogs using organic methods. He has taken charge of marketing the hogs by running
a cooperative marketing project serving about 50 farmers to provide better sales
for himself and his neighbors. He also participates in a 1,000-farmer “relationship
marketing" group that finds outlets for organic crops.
PROFITABILITY
Fernholz manages his 350 acres of crops with a four-year rotation: a small grain
- barley, oats or wheat - over-seeded with flax or alfalfa, followed by corn,
then soybeans.
Premiums for organic grain are a
welcome bonus, but are not the only reason to grow organically, Fernholz says.
He receives about $16.50 per bushel for his organic soybeans.
By using organic growing methods,
"you generally have significantly fewer actual dollars expended to produce
a crop," he says. "You enhance the potential of making more profit
that way. And if there is a premium, you're that much farther ahead."
Despite demanding labor requirements
that go hand in hand with an organic cropping system, Fernholz spends less each
season than his conventional counterparts who buy costly pesticides and fertilizers.
What he would spend on chemicals he can spend on labor - or do the work himself
and avoid $20 to $30 an acre for fertilizer and another $20 or $30 an acre for
herbicides.
Flax provides a particularly good
opportunity for profits. Prices for organic flax have thus far soared above
conventional; Fernholz sells flax for human consumption at $1 a pound, which
translates into about $50 to $60 dollars a bushel - compared to $5 to $8 a bushel
for conventionally grown flax.
ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES
Fernholz' four-year rotation enriches the soil with nitrogen from growing legumes.
He practices ecological weed management, crowding out most weeds during the
first year of his rotation when the small grain is under-seeded, and, in ensuing
years, through timely use of a rotary hoe and spring-tooth harrow.
COMMUNITY, OUTREACH, QUALITY OF LIFE
Fernholz works closely with the University of Minnesota, with whom he is cooperating
on a research project on organic conversion. He is a guest lec-turer at the
university's St. Paul campus several times each year and participates in other
events throughout the state. In 2002, he was a finalist for SARE's Patrick Madden
Award for Sustainable Agriculture.
In addition to helping area farmers
with marketing, Fernholz serves as a willing mentor. In the spring, he averages
three to four lengthy phone calls with other farmers every week. Over the years,
he estimates, he has reached thousands of farmers, many of them at summer field
days he has hosted for the last 15 years in conjunction with the university
research project.
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