A newsletter for our friends and associates

January 2003

• 2002 Crop: Better but Spotty
• What to grow in 2003
• Upcoming Events
• Is Your soil Working?
• Your Organic Farm Supplies
• Poultry in 2003

The season produced a mix of satisfaction and utter disappointment across the land as pockets of drought had varying effects. The organic matter level in the soil is critical in regulating the moisture level and supplying nutrients. Weed prevention was more important than weed control. The month of May was too wet for mechanical weeding and the summer was so dry that cultivating only caused more evaporation. A good crop rotation and the persistent use of cover crops really pay off in cases like this.

Corn and soybeans produced about half their potential yield. For a second year in a row, the late buckwheat plantings, around July 18^th, performed the best by missing the summer heat and benefiting from a late frost. The spring cereals were average in terms of both yield and bushel weight.

Growth on the horizon!

The constant growth over many years and multidimensional support demonstrate that organic food will not go away nor will it see its plateau for many years. Yes, some organic markets in Europe have been distorted by subsidies but the drive for organic food is real.

Support for organics is varied: the sustainable alternative to the current industrialization of agriculture that squeezes the farmer’s margin; a variety of health and environmental benefits; the great taste and quality of the food. Either way, retailers are responding. President’s Choice continues to expand its line of organic foods. Neighbourhood grocery stores are stocking organic drinks, pastas, and snacks. Organic animal products continue to enjoy strong growth as larger farms convert to organic production.

Prices: Steady as They Go

Homestead Organics publishes monthly updates to spot prices and future delivery contracts on the web site; please watch it regularly. Soybeans remain the most valuable and profitable organic crop. Early contracts for food grade beans started at C$650/mt, higher than the 2001 contract; the spot price is rising slightly. Feed soybeans are worth about C$550-C$600. Spelt is stable at C$350-C$400 depending on the protein level. Cereals are getting expensive because of the drought in western Canada. High protein bread wheat can fetch C$350-C$400. Early contracts for feed cereals started at about C$190 but the spot price now sits at C$250. Corn contracts started at C$230 last summer but deliveries for next summer are now reaching C$290-C$320.

Prices cannot "collapse" overnight because of the 3 year transition and the mandatory crop rotation. But the poor weather for three years in a row is hiding a pent up supply. It would be a very different price picture if Canada had decent weather. Looking forward, be prepared for downward price pressures as good weather puts all the organic acres to work, as new growers enter the fold, and as developing countries learn to compete.

When choosing your 2003 crops, respect your soil conditions and your crop rotation first. Here is our preliminary shopping list for the 2003 crop: 1000 tonnes of corn, 500 tonnes of feed soybeans, 700 tonnes of food soybeans, 300 tonnes of barley, 200 tonnes of oats, 200 tonnes of feed wheat, 200 tonnes of rye, 1000 tonnes of conventional buckwheat, 200 tonnes of organic buckwheat.

We are working hard to establish a predictable market for spelt. I dropped triticale because it is costly to manage with a rented bin and costly to clean as it is very prone to ergot. Besides, the yields did not compare well to the other cereals. Rye is important because a large part of the rye bread market has converted to organic. We will even offer spring rye seed to increase production. The key message is that the feed market is growing faster than the food market and farmers should consider corn and feed grains in their rotation.

Storage — your place or mine?

In selling crops to Homestead Organics, the issue of storage is separate from the chosen marketing option. Some farmers spend thousands of dollars to store crops on the farm, even for a few days or weeks to aerate the grain and organize the transportation.

Loads that arrive at Homestead at harvest time are subject to a storage fee. But these farmers enjoy significant advantages: they handle the grain only once thus avoiding bad weather in the fall and winter; they pay for storage by the tonne instead of buying a big bin that sits half empty; they assume no risk of spoilage during storage; they can grow many crops without many bins; their cost of storage is spread out over many years instead of requiring up front capital. And finally, they can invest their money in Homestead Organics for 6% interest instead of depreciating their money in a bin on the farm.

• Eco Farm Day, Morrisburg Ont, Feb 22^nd, 2003; www.cog.ca/ottawa
• Seedy Saturday, Ottawa Ont, Mar 8^th, 2003; www.seedysaturday.ca
• Guelph Organic Farmers Conference, Jan 24-26^th 2003, www.guelphorganicconf.org

Lots of Marketing options

We operate under the principle of Just-In-Time inventory to make optimal use of our resources. So farmers need to develop a sales plan and make their reservations early.

Monthly purchase plans are set to match our consumption. We reserve some loads of grain by forward contract, then draw more grain from the marketing pool, and finally fill in the gaps with spot purchases. Our web site provides spot and future delivery prices; these change on a monthly basis so go back often.

Forward contracts, signed either before or after harvest, come with a fixed price and a fixed payment schedule. Contracts are offered for any month of the year on a first-come-first-serve basis. Contracts before harvest are based on the actual harvest.

The marketing pool is a series of quarterly payments at the prevailing market price of each quarter, made on the consumed volume. So the farmer takes advantage of rising markets over the whole year.

As a last priority, we make spot purchases at a negotiated price to fill gaps in our production volume. Farmers may want to hold their crop until they are satisfied with the market price, but they run the risk that we may not need their crop when they want to sell.

#1 in Ontario

This is our sixth harvest, and we are not slowing down! By our count, Homestead Organics is the leading handler of organic crops in Ontario. We handle more tonnes of organic crops and provide a greater diversity of services than anyone else in Ontario. We have only our customers to congratulate.

To keep up the pace, we have expanded: a new truck scale makes your deliveries more convenient; two more grain bins reduce our off-site storage costs; a new feed processing system improves the turn-around time for livestock farmers; and 4 more shipping tanks allows us to serve more people at once.

In front of the hardware, there is a growing team to serve you: Tom handles feed formulations. Murray provides crop services. Isabelle keeps the office running and the paper flowing. Denis processes the feeds. John receives & cleans the grain. Christine manages the retail store. Stefan picks up behind us.

Field Crop Seed for 2003

The organic certification agencies are tightening up the rules for seed, and rightly so. We need to send a clear message to the seed industry that we want them to adopt organic practices and to select or adapt varieties that perform well under organic management.

Homestead Organics will offer a broad line of field crop seed: common organic with known germination rates and organic pedigree seed. Untreated conventional pedigree seed will also be available for many field crops. We recommend for farms in eastern Ontario: soybeans - NK S-0880, NK S-03W4 or OAC Atwood; hard red spring wheat - AC Intrepid or Brio; barley - AC Alma or Grant; oats - AC Aylmer; buckwheat - Manor/Mancan for organic fields, Manasoba for others.

We are working on sources of organic and conventional untreated hybrid corn as well as a line of open pollinated corn. Homestead Organics is a retailer for Pickseed and we have excellent untreated forage seed, either individual species or elaborate mixes. Look for our seed catalogue by the end of January including discounts for early orders and payments.

What About Feeds?

In our mission to develop organic agriculture, Homestead Organics is proud to launch our own book: Livestock Nutrition — From Field to Feeder. In response to popular demand, this handy guide will address the many questions about feeding programs for all the popular farm animals including poultry, hogs, and ruminants. Learn how to start and finish lamb, feed ducks, and raise hogs. And when your animals are in trouble, refer to the guide for help in using a wide range of nutritional and health supplements. At the end of January, buy the book at our store, your local feed store, or by mail order. We will also post selected extracts on the web site.

We hope to hold our feed prices steady. Our aggressive purchasing program allows us to significantly reduce our imports of corn but there is strong upward price pressure because of the poor crop and strong demand.

Thanks to the persistent enquiries of our customers, our distribution network has reached 37 points of sale in Ontario, Québec, Vermont, New York, and Nova Scotia. Farm supply stores depend on local demand to decide to carry our products, so your insistence is critical. Visit our web site to locate a dealer near you.

Is Your Soil Working?

Your Organic Farm Supplies

By listening to our customers and responding to their needs, we have selected a large number of organically acceptable products and continue to seek out more tools to help organic farmers.

For farmers and gardeners; we can help with:

• Pheromone lures and traps for the orchard, field, garden, barn and greenhouse.
• Neem oil, insecticide soap and BT(Dipel)
• A parasitic fly control program.
• Organic garden seed from Terra Edibles and Aimers Organics.
• Certified organic potting soil.
• Organic spelt and buckwheat mulches.
• Wormers and pest controls for animals.
• Hydrogen peroxide & apple cider vinegar.
• Greensand and soft rock phosphate.
• Spanish River Carbonatite.
• Gypsum and Sul-Po-Mag.
• Seaweed and hydrolyzed fish.
• Crab meal, steamed bone meal.
• Barnyard and peat composts.
• Hot pepper wax and garlic water.

The task of finding certified organic hybrid vegetable seed proved to be too difficult. The seed breeders are not yet in sync with the needs of organic market gardeners. We are optimistic that they are making progress and we should see results in the near future.

Poultry in 2003