Orchard Hill - Horse-powered Organic Farm Part 3 - Growing Cereal Grains

Joe visits Ken and Martha Laing on their organic farm in St Thomas, Ontario. This 93 acre farm has been in Martha's family since the 1820's and they took over in 1979. They operated a pick-your-own fruit farm for 17 years. Once they decided to go organic they were not able to make it profitable. In 1997 they converted to a CSA, headed up by Martha and their daughter Ellen. It turned out to be the most profitable business they have. It is particularly well suited to the use of draft horse power. They eventually offered education in CSA farming and draft horse power in exchange for labor during the growing season.

In the third of our three-part series on the Laings, Ken walks his cereal grain fields and explains the hows and whys of his planting methods and research.

We start in Ken's oat and barley fields. He points out that these fields had no fertility inputs in the previous year. He shows how you can see the where cover crops were planted in previous years by looking at the grain output and the weed control. These are all an indication of soil health.

Next we visit his tomato hoop house and the adjacent plot used in alternate years. One is cover cropped with crimson clover and the other with a oat/barley/pea mix.

Next we visit a switch grass field that is a cover crop used as green manure or mulch.

Then he shows us a beautiful crop of Sangaste Rye originally from Estonia. It is planted with red clover for soil fertility.

His Spring Grain fields have legume and grass planted at the same time which established a grazing field once the grains are harvested.

Off to check the compost piles. They are made up of cow, chicken and horse manure. Ken monitors the temperature and ultimately wants it to reach 150 degrees F in order to kill weed seeds. He had piles of gypsum and dolomitic limestone to mix with the compost when needed.

Ken explains how he got started with draft horses. He started with grade Belgians and switched to Suffolks in 1994 after attending a Suffolk Horse Association meeting in the US. He eventually became a breeder.

Next off the the winter wheat field which is used by a local baker to make flour and bread. He uses Redeemer and Harvard as well a some Sirvinta (also from Estonia) wheat varieties.

Lastly, Ken takes us into a building to show us a Meadow Mill with sifter used to remove some of the bran. It is used to grind spelt, rye and hard winter wheat. It is no longer used by his baker because of its low output. He shows us the wood fired baking oven that used to be used to make the breads.

Watch the other episodes of this series on Orchard Hill:
Orchard Hill - Horse-powered Organic Farm Part 1 - Rotational Grazing, Potatoes, No-Til Vegetables
Orchard Hill - Horse-powered Organic Farm Part 2 - Horse Drawn Farming Implements