Based on a talk by Tom Manley from Homestead Organics, presented at the Guelph 2000 Organic Conference in Guelph, Ontario on January 29, 2000.
An organic product is not necessarily a high quality product. Currently, the term 'organic' only defines production methods, specifically chemical-free production methods. While such methods may tend to produce high quality food, several management, weather and soil variations can reduce the quality of the food product. Certification bodies may consider amending organic standards to require both organic production methods and a high quality product. Producing high quality organic food should be the objective of organic producers and processors.
In the recent past, some consumers accepted lower quality products, provided they were certified organic, because of a lack of supply. Now both consumers and processors are demanding higher quality since they can choose from an ample supply. Consumers are paying a premium for organic food and in return they should be receiving a premium product. Many organic foods are consumed as whole foods, with minimal processing; consequently quality is critical. In contrast, in highly processed foods, additives are used to compensate for poor flavour, nutritional value and texture of the original product.
There is a widely-held view that if the grain is not good enough for milling, it can be used for feed. This attitude allows producers to relax their standards a bit. However, organic livestock producers demand higher quality than conventional farmers. Antibiotics and other conventional medications cannot be used; instead organic producers maintain healthy livestock by feeding highly nutritious feed. It is also essential that the feed be free of moulds and toxins; organic producers cannot rely on conventional veterinary treatment for sick animals. The health of the livestock depends on the quality of the feed, so feed producers must also aim to produce high quality livestock feed. Secondly, people rely of animal products for their own food and they expect high quality food from an animal that has received high quality feed.
The nutritional quality of the crop is assured by soil nutrition -- healthy soil produces healthy crops. In cereals, the specific weight (bushel weight) and protein level are directly affected by the amount of available nitrogen in the soil. Low nitrogen in the soil leads to low protein and low specific weight of the crop. Likewise, trace minerals in the food come from the soil. If the soil is low in certain elements, the crop will also be deficient. The level of biological activity in the soil affects the nutritional quality as well. As described in Section *: Understanding the Soil, soils with high levels of soil biological activity (i.e. VAM fungi) can produce wheat with high levels of trace minerals.
Odour and taste are important aspects of food quality. These can be affected by soil quality, but more often by management practices. For example, storing damp grain and letting it heat will lead to a poor taste and odour. Hairy vetch seeds in the milling wheat will lead to a bitter taste (as well as black flecks).
Another facet of crop quality is the culinary characteristic of the food. For example, not all soybeans will make good tofu. Variety choice, harvesting methods and other farm practices affect the suitability of the crop for tofu production. Moisture level often affects the culinary quality of a crop. For example, moisture levels in soybeans affect how well they will soak and moisture levels of grain affect their suitability for bread production. For sprouting grains, the germination rate is a critical parameter of quality.
The presence of mold or toxins in the grain does not simply reduce quality; it renders the grain unusable. Mouldy grain cannot be used for either human or livestock consumption. In feed, even low levels of mold can kill whole flocks of poultry or livestock.
Appearance of a product can be an important selling factor. Obviously, this is more important for vegetable production than for grain. Even with grain and pulses however, appearance can affect sales. Consumers are often fickle, so even though a product may have excellent nutritional quality, it may not sell if it is unattractive. The appearance of a field crop is often affected by harvesting practices. Staining, weather damage or mechanical damage reduces the visual quality. Mechanical damage also affects the storage characteristics; broken grain attracts mold and insect damage.
Crop quality is determined by soil nutrition, crop management, crop handling, and weather. The two main obstacles to producing high quality organic grain are insufficient soil nitrogen and the farmer's lack of knowledge and experience. Many new organic farmers have just moved to the country, and bought depleted or marginal land. Their poor soil and lack of experience lead to a poor quality crop. Sometimes farmers are 'organic by neglect' in that they don't use any inputs -- neither the prohibited pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, nor useful organic amendments. In contrast, successful organic farmers are 'organic by design'.
To produce high quality food and be 'organic by design', walk the fields and pay attention to details. Learn to recognize weeds, crop quality and changes in the soil. Take the effort to learn about the farm, and to develop a good understanding of soil, plants and animals. Learn from experience, from talking to other farmers, reading books and going to workshops. A commitment to quality improvement and an investment of time and dedication will lead to better crops.
Being 'organic by design' requires good planning and problem prevention. Plan your crop rotation three years ahead, but check the growing conditions and adapt the rotation as needed. Off-farm inputs are used if needed, including soil amendments. A wise selection of high-quality tools is purchased for the farm.
When selecting varieties, consider the strengths and limitations of your farm as well as the market. Talk to the buyers to see what varieties they want. It's a good idea to grow several varieties of one crop when dealing with large volumes in order to spread out the risks and advantages of each variety; but see if the buyer demands varietal purity. It may be necessary to combine and store the varieties separately.
To maintain high quality, renew your seed source every couple of years, rather than save seed year after year, particularly for soybeans and hard red spring wheat. With each generation, the crop becomes a bit more variable. In soybeans, dark hylums may start to emerge. With wheat, some plants may have low protein levels. If however, you are interested in saving seed, grow a seed plot and rigorously rogue the plot for unusual plants. For more details on saving seed from field crops, see Section *: saving seed from field crops.
There is increasing concern over contamination of seed supplies with genetically-engineered (GE) seeds, particularly for canola, corn, soy and potatoes. Wholesalers and processors are starting to test products to ensure that the crops do not contain genetically-engineered varieties. The first potential source of contamination is the seed house. If one GE seed potato is accidentally planted, a farmer might not be able to sell an entire lot of potatoes, even on the conventional market. Consequently, it is critical that farmers ensure there is no contamination of their seed. Some farmers are choosing varieties of crops that are easy to distinguish from GE crops. For example, there are no GE strains of white corn, so farmers can feel relatively confident that the white seed corn is GE free. Other options include having their seed tested for GE contamination or buying organic seed. For more information on genetically engineered crops and how to reduce the risk of cross-contamination, see Section *: GE (title?*).
Keep the grain pure from other grains. Processing plants have difficulty separating some grain. For example, corn is difficult to sort from soybeans, and you can't make good tofu out of corn. Secondly, your customer is going to suspect that the corn came from a hired combine that just left a field of GE corn and he/she may refuse your soybeans. Stones and nightshade berries are also difficult to separate from the soybeans. To maintain grain purity, walk the soybean fields and pull nightshade and corn plants. If soybeans are planted after corn, make sure the combine doesn't pick up old ears from the ground.
Hairy vetch and buckwheat are difficult to separate from milling grains. Ensure that spelt is pure from other cereals, such as fall rye. Again, walking the fields to handpick the volunteer grains is worth the effort. Handpicking may determine if the crop is food grade or is sold as livestock feed.
Think about the problem of foreign grain when planning your crop rotation. If you growing milling grains, you should probably not include buckwheat or vetch in your crop rotation, or at least not right before the milling crops. Oil radish is another crop that may volunteer in following years and is difficult to separate from milling grains. Avoid growing these 'problem grains' just before milling grains.
Make sure the bins and trucks are clean before you put your new crop in. A bit of loose corn in a truck can contaminate a whole load of soybeans. This is also important in terms of reducing contamination from genetically-modified crops. Ensure that your soybeans, corn, canola and potatoes are never contaminated with crops from another field.
Even feed grains should be relatively pure. Some foreign grain is acceptable, but if there is more than 5% foreign grain, the feed ration is affected. Try to keep foreign grain to less than 2-3% in feed grains. It is essential that feed grain not be contaminated with ergot (which can cause abortions in livestock).
Combining is one of the most important mechanical processes on the farm. If you can, buy a combine, even a small combine. It is better to take a long time to combine your fields, but be able to pay attention to detail, than to have a custom operator quickly harvest the field. Custom operators often do not have the time to pay attention to detail, or to ensure high quality grain. As well, they often lack experience with grains such as buckwheat, rye, food grade soybeans, not to mention spelt and kamut. Most combine operators are used to dealing with the crushing market, which is more tolerant of damaged grain, stones or foreign grain. If you do need to use custom operators, pay them extra to take the time to do it well, from meticulously cleaning the equipment to re-adjusting the settings as needed.
To set the combine, carefully adjust the speed, augers and space of the cylinders. Keep in mind that unthrashed wheat and barley count as dockage. Crushed buckwheat is also dockage and split soybeans are removed for livestock feed. So, it pays to take the time to find the proper settings. Adjust the ground speed and avoid shelling to the ground. While combining, keep watching what's happening. If you pick up mud with the combine head, then stop. Clean the combine and start again, rather than stain the whole lot. Stop to remove stones as well.
Timeliness of harvest is critical. If you are dependant on a custom operator, you are also dependent on the operator's time schedule. The ideal time depends on the weather, the moisture level of the grain, the maturity of the crop and shelling. The wheat must be off the field before it starts sprouting. Buckwheat is very sensitive to timing of harvest. Swathing is important. In cereals, swathing allows the grain and weeds to dry down naturally. Buckwheat should be swathed to avoid shelling to the ground.
The moisture level of a crop is a critical component of crop quality. The moisture level affects the culinary characteristics and the ability of the crop to be stored. High levels of moisture cause the quality to deteriorate during storage. Excessive moisture levels lead to heating, mold growth, development of toxins and rancidity. Odour problems can develop.
The recommended moisture levels for various grain crops are:
- soybeans - 11-14% (ideal is 13%)
- processed corn - 16% (it is 16% for processing but 15% for storage)
- milling grains - 12.5%
- feed grains - 15%
In general, grain can be stored with aeration at 19%, or stored without aeration at 14% moisture.
Most of the moisture is held in the dockage. The dockage is moist and also fills up the spaces between the grain, reducing air circulation. Attention to detail while harvesting often prevents problems with excessive moisture. For example, a wet area of a field may need to be combined later than the rest of the field. Combining the whole field at one time may save time initially, but there is a risk that the whole lot might be rejected due to a small percentage of wet grain that goes rancid.
The best quality grains are aerated grain and crib-dried corn. Aerate during good dry autumn days and not at night or during wet days. Use aeration both to reduce the moisture of the grain, and to prevent condensation from forming, which can lead to mold development. Temperature fluctuations in the outside air temperature will cause condensation. As well, if the bin temperature is quite different from the outside air temperature, condensation will form. Put enough air through the bins so that if you stick your head into the top of the bin, your hat should fly off.
If mechanical drying is needed, a slow process with low temperatures should be used. Drying temperatures for grain should be around 32°C (90°F), definitely less than 38°C (100°F). Keep the temperature low with lots of air circulating through it. The nutritional quality of the grain is reduced if it is dried at high temperatures.
Dockage is a highly overrated issue. Most farmers are far too concerned about dockage when they should be concerned about the split rate, protein level, moisture level and other aspects of quality. Processors will clean the grain so dockage is not much of an issue. Most dockage should be removed at the combine, not with a cleaner. Focus on combining well, rather than relying on cleaning the grain afterwards.
Rotary cleaners on the farm can create more problems than they solve. They can increase the split rate or damage the grain. On-farm cleaning is usually not necessary since the grain processor can clean the grain and do a better job. However, on-farm cleaning is recommended under the following circumstances.
1) There is a problem with high dockage levels (i.e. more than 4% dockage). Most of the weight and moisture of a load are in the dockage. So, if there are high levels of dockage, the grain is more likely to heat and it is worthwhile to clean.
2) The grain is moist and there is a risk of heating. The cleaner will facilitate aeration and drying. This is particularly important if the grain has high dockage and is stored on-farm.
3) If the processing plant is far from the farm, it could be expensive to ship dockage.
4) If there is little room in the bin, clean the grain to reduce the volume.
5) If you are feeding the grain to livestock on the farm, the on-farm cleaner can reduce dockage.
6) If you want to increase the price per tonne of grain produced, clean the grain. However, you won't make much, if any, extra money doing this.
On-farm storage is ideal. If the crop is stored on-farm, the farmer can send samples to the Canadian Grain Commission to determine the protein level, falling number, mold levels, toxins and other properties. Often buyers will want another sample. When sending samples, send accurate samples. Don't try to impress the processor by sending a perfect sample and follow that with a mediocre load of grain. Sending samples allows the farmer to make the sale before the grain leaves the barn. Without on-farm storage, farmers can end up at the processing plant and be told that their product is not good enough to buy. The farmer will then have to pay to ship the grain back to the farm or to another processor.
Variety selection is critical when selling soybeans to the processing market. Choose varieties that have:
- high protein levels (greater than 40% protein)
- split resistance
- true yellow hylum, no imperfect yellow. Dark hylums, even just 5% in the load, will go to feed.
Soybeans must have high protein and look good. Mud stains, grass stains and green soybeans are not acceptable.
Quality requirements vary depending on the end use.
Bread quality wheat is usually hard red spring wheat with the following characteristics:
- 13.5% protein (preferred 14%)
- 12.5% moisture and
- 350 seconds falling number.
Pastry wheat is soft white or red winter wheat with 9-11% protein. Kosher bread is made from hard red winter with 12% protein. Feed grade wheat has at least 10% protein, usually 12% protein. As with other crops, the protein level reflects the amount of available nitrogen in the soil. Nitrogen is required to make protein, so low nitrogen levels lead to low protein. Note that excessively high levels of nitrogen lead to other problems.
The falling number of wheat indicates how well the bread holds together. Bread with a poor falling number will break apart and have large air pockets. For hard red spring wheat, a falling number of 350 is acceptable, and 400 is considered very good. Ontario wheat usually has a low falling number, but can be blended with high quality western wheat to produce a reasonable flour. For soft winter wheat, the ideal falling number is over 275, and a falling number of 300-350 is acceptable for spelt.
The falling number reflects both variety choice and management practices. If the wheat has started to sprout, some of the starch will have converted to sugar, resulting in a low falling number. To keep the falling number high, make sure that the wheat does not have a chance to sprout. Combine the crop early. If the crop is damp, don't delay harvest until it dries. Instead, harvest as soon as it ready, and immediately aerate and dry the grain.
With experience, attention to detail and commitment, farmers can produce high quality organic food. Ideally the term organic will refer not only to the means of production, but also the high quality of the finished product.
Tom Manley operates Homestead Organics, Eastern Ontario's Organic Grain Company. Homestead Organics services most organic field crop growers in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec by marketing their grains in Canada, the USA and overseas. Homestead Organics provides several grain services including elevating, drying, storage, cleaning and packaging. As well, Homestead Organics supplies food grade grains to soy processors and flour mills. The operation also grinds and mixes complete livestock rations for organic dairy, poultry and hog farmers in Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes and northern New England.
Homestead Organics, Eastern Ontario's Organic Grain Company.
email: tom@homesteadorganics.ca
1 Union Street, PO Box 39,
Berwick, Ontario, K0C 1G0
Tel: (613) 984-0480
Toll Free: 1-877-984-0480
Fax: (613) 984-0481