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Central IL | Some of you may want to get out some popcorn, cause this may be a bit of a post
So before I get into this, let me tell you who I am. I am a young college farm boy, born and raised on the farm, my dad farms a couple hundred acres, most of which he owns, enough for some extra cash for school and what not, but still works a full time job. I help out around as much as I can, mostly tillage and harvest, but I'm just not satisfied with a half assed farm life. We farm conventional, and my dad has for as long as I've been alive. My dad brought up going organic sometime this past winter & I actually laughed at him, saying that it's really way too much work for us especially for him working a full time job. I've worked on organic farms in the area, walking beans, baling hay, ect. & have never really been too impressed with them. They're your typical "hippie" organic farmers. but recently I ran into two organic farmers that I knew about but didn't really think much of because I had already made a stereotype on organic farming. One just so happens to be my friend's uncle, and recently went to their farm to pick up canoes for a trip. His uncle was out in the field running around in tractor nicer than any of ours put together. After talking to him some, it sounded like he had paradigm receiver and ran RTK on both of his tractors. This completely blew my mind on organic farming.
Later on I ended up befriending some guys my age who moved in just down the road in the next section. After getting to know them (two brothers) I found out that they too were organic farmers. They too seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves, one working full time on the farm, and the other being a mechanic on the side, but spending about 4-5 days on the farm helping out. This really changed my perspective on organic farming, and got me thinking if this was a practical way for me and my dad to farm full time.
Really what this post is about is to just see what you guys think, I know a lot will probably think it's a bad idea, but I feel like there is some light at the end of the tunnel, Also I understand that it's ALOT of work, but if it's something to make us sustainably full time farming, then that is perfectly fine with me. I've done a considerable amount of research and some tips from these organic farmers. I understand for the most part the "3 year" rule before you can be truly organic, but can sell as non gmo, (which in this area isn't a huge premium), in the years prior to organic. I've also done some math and according to my calculations, we could make about 5-6x the amount on the same amount of land as conventional. This is with lower than average yields, higher labor costs, local non treated seed prices, fert costs ect. . The closest organic co-op is about a half hour (20 miles) away, at least as far as I know thats the closest. The only kicker is we don't have any grain bins to store grain.
some extra thoughts, we don't plan on switching over 100% in one year, dad was talking about letting me run with a 10 acre plot and see how it goes with that first.
Moral of the story, I'd really like to be able to move up the ladder, and maybe someday get some more later model equipment and do the best that I can for myself, and my family. | |
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Organic Farming Conversion
