No Till, Continious crop, Organic farming.
Obviously the above picture is NOT of organic farming, chemical farming as above is not sustainable, it is killing the family farm, the soil and long term will lead to mass starvation.
We have for sale organic grain production, we can grow wheat, peas, barley, oats, faba beans and canola in our climate. Also we produce organic alfalfa pellets and organic compost.
We can sell in bulk, large tote bags or 50 lb bags, contact us using e-mail jacobsfarmsdaysland@gmail.com for price quotes and production schedules. We will sell all as "feed". What you do with your "feed" is your business, we eat our products. Organic alfalfa is aimed at horse or rabit feed. Organic compost is aimed at enhancing garden production.
Do not believe you are getting organic produce from any supermarket, note it never says "Certified organic" with backup information such as Certifying organization or the farm it was produced on. See our cetification issued by "Pro Cert" below.
Generally organic grain is worth twice as much as chemical grain. The communist government of canada just brought out a $500 million mental health plan for children, these mental health issues may be due to the terrible chemical cocktail in our food. Tests are done on rats using the chemical compounds but the chemicals are not mixed into a cocktail and there is no way to determine the mental health of a rat. Consuming a small amount of these chemicals over a long time is probably causing mental illness in a large part of society. Much of what we consider normal today was considered abnormal 50 years ago. Society spends more money on ball and stick sports than food. Normal? Another mental health factor for the the young white boys is that they are accused of causing all the worlds problems, hardly a good thing for a child.
Good parents give their children all possible oportunity in life with healthy food even if it costs more, the children do not need 1500 dollar iphones, they should not worship multi-million dollar professional athletes promoting a questionable racist value system.
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We are no till farmers, at present we do not use any cultivation. However in the near future we will experiment with plowing on a small plot, it may be necessary to control weeds and fungus. I beleive organic farming should be mandated by the Organic Certifying body to use organic bio fuel. No till minimizes fuel consumption.
As with most things the media/liberals can always lie to us claiming various sources of green energy such as wind turbines. A wind turbine is only "green" once it has paid off the fossil fuel energy consumption used to create it, for most turbines that is never. Wind turbines and solar panels need backup coal and natural gas generators, which are expected to vary output continiously, which makes them inefficent. Bio fuel cannot be called "green" if it comes from conventional chemical farms. The US has 7.5 years of oil consumption at present rates, worldwide oil consumption is 104 million BBLs /day and increasing. New oil finds do not add to more than 25% of consumption. Worldwide coal consumption increased 4% in 2024. Any farm that is based on the consumption of fossil fuel is not sustainable. Think fuel, fertilizer and herbicides all from fossil fuel. Modern chemical farming is only profitable for the chemical companies, machine companies, oil companies, railroads and fertilizer companies. 60% of a modern farmers net income comes from off farm sources, this farm was built from off farm income. The chemical companies test their products on animals and declare them safe. The mental health of a animal cannot be tested, drug addicts look physically correct but they are mentally ill. The chemical cocktails in our food supply probably cause mental health issues, how else could socialism/communism be explained. Children should not be injesting the chemicals in our food. Force fed animals are injected with hormones to increase weight gain/maturity, these hormones are being injested by children, it is changing their growth pattern, both mental and physical.
To us Organic Farming is far more than just growing grain without chemicals. It must be sustainable on many fronts, wildlife must be able to prosper, we are setting permanent wildlife habitats apart from normal farmland by making 5 acre deep tree surounded bodies of water.
Our system is no-till and will burn organic biofuel. We hope to convert the whole farm in the next 10 years and expect it to be the most profitable method of farming. We expect to have a 20 million dollar tax bill on land inflation by then so making a profit is a matter of survival. It is most evil how the government caused inflation causes our fiat currency money to collapse in value, then we are taxed on it.
In our electricity generating system comprised of a silage cutter, holdiing bins/bunker, stoker feed into a firebox, boiler, steam turbine or steam piston engine and electricity generator we will use unwanted bio mass such as cattails, straw, tree cuttings etc. This input is free and we burn it just to get rid of it. In the event of a hail storm, weed patch or other unwanted growth the bio-mass is burned. The ash is turned into fertilizer using a pellet machine, the pellets then being put thru a normal air drill. The boiler is required to heat the large shops and provide steam for the pellet machine. If our organic production is of very poor quality it is burned.
We are experimenting with a Gamma Sterling engine, small ones about 4 in tall can be bought. We have built one that is 6 ft tall and should produce 2 hp, that is a small output for a large space and that is why despite being invented in 1816 Sterling engines have not become popular. We have lots of space and a Sterling engine can burn any fuel. The Gamma version only needs a heat differential of 100 deg C to run. |
In the event we do not get enough for our grain we burn it, that changes us from price takers to price setters as we produce no electricity until the power grid price is high. That gives us many customers, at present we are held hostage by grain companies that are chinese puppets. The following are soft numbers taken from various internet sources. A gallon of crude oil has about 30 million calories of heat/energy. A bushel of canola is about 6 gallons so making a large assumption a gallon of canola has about 20 million calories (canola is about 45% oil) or 120 k calories. A Kwh is about 860 k calories so there is 140 Kwh per bushel, at .20 per kwH that is $27/bushel. Assuming a 50% conversion efficiency rate it is $13.50/bushel, the conversion efficency is probably better than that, and the ash has nutrient value. Now if electricity is $1.00/kwH as it is in Europe, then a bushel of Canola is worth $67.50!! or 2000 USD/tonne! Gotta love those electric cars and we are just at the beggining of electrification. The equipment to burn bio-mass and put power on the grid is worth about 200 thousand. As we just started on this project public input is welcome! We hope to produce organic based bio-deisel and ethanol within 10 years, as Albertan's we will not run out of deisel or gasoline for some time, however being certified organic may force burning green energy. |
To use mechanical no-till weed control and leave a Nitrogen fixing crop growing all the time the main crop must be seeded in a clump or matrix into living Alfalfa sod. Alfalfa is used as a nitrogen fixing crop as we cannot use chemical nitrogen. I am told that organic phos will limit production and that chicken manure is the best source, maybe I can provide organic grain in return for organic chicken manure, looking for a close organic chicken farmer. |
It is drawn to illustrate the most probable way of seeding in a clump or matrix. A trip wire is shown which could be connected to a wheel, each pass would have to be syncronized for a matrix. However the most likely method is a electric solenoid being operated from a RTK (1" accuracy) GPS feild map much the same as variable rate or sectional control. The diagram shows many seeds in the airway for illustration purposes, however most likely 4-10 seeds would accumulate in the funnel before the valve opens and seeds are planted. There may be a cover on the funnel to give a pulse effect or a venturi to pull seeds. |
The initial designs show a trip wire opening the seed valve. We already have very accurate GPS system that could control seed placement within 1/2 in. So a software map of the feild would be produced, electric solonoid "156" would open and close the seed valve. |
The land is left continiously seeded to Alfalfa which pulls N out of the air. N can also be obtained from a membrane machine as the air is 78% Nitrogen. Other nutrients are obtained from ash when unwanted bio-mass is burned.
The above add on to the shank of a air drill will allow seeding in clumps or a matrix instead of rows. This pea matrix is 20 " X 20". Crops such as wheat, peas and canola are seeded into the alfalfa.
We expect to matrix seed into living alfalfa sod so the present mid-row banders would be moved directly in front of a seeding shank to cut the sod or clumps of sod may pull out. The pea patch is underseeded to alfalfa, next year the soil N should be high as both peas and alfalfa fix N out of the atmosphere. Other advantages to matrix seeding instead of row seeding will be control of insects and fungus as the plants do not canopy over and touch until late in the season.
The seed density is correct for the feild. The clumps have high density which pushes out weeds. Eventually the top canopies over. The roots diffuse below the surface to access nutrients. Mowing between the clumps controls weeds. Underseeded alfalfa recieves enough light to stay alive. Once normal crop is harvested it thrives. It also thrives in the spring as it starts growing very early.
In the spring the alfalfa starts growing 1 month before seeding, it takes 2 weeks for the seeded plants to emerge and get 2 in tall. At that time the alfalfa is silaged and turned into alfalfa pellets. Then the alfalfa is "stunted" by mowing between the rows of grain.
About April 15 the ground is not froze and there is enough heat units for growth, also in the fall many heat units are lost with conventional farming. This farming method captures lost heat units and moisture. In the event of a primary crop failure the alfalfa is allowed to mature and if bees are near it may produce fertile seed. |
50 years ago summerfallow was considered a good thing, its purpose was to kill weeds and preserve moisture. As chemicals such as glyphosulfate and fertilizers became available we went to continious cropping, the next step was no til as more chemicals and drills that could seed directly into stubble became available. I beleive the next step is to no till seed using a matrix pattern into a living N2 fixing crop such as alfalpha. Weed control could be done with mechanical no till surface equipment such as a mower or water jet. There are organic farmers using tillage, no till is very important to us as we just have too many acres for tillage, we make 1 pass/year. In 2018 we went 6 weeks without rain and wheat still averaged 50 bu/acre as we had not dried the soil with tillage. It takes about 6000 gallons of water to grow a bushel of wheat, we have a average yearly rain/snowfall of about 12 in, so to expect more than 50 bu/acre on a continious basis may be wrong. Some may say the 6000 gallons for 1 bushel of wheat is wrong, it can be verified by many others. |
The first machine was a absolute proto type. 20 hp was all it had to the eight 15 in electric mowers.
The second generation prototype is below, 23 hydraulic driven floating mowers an 20 in spacing so it is 25 ft wide, Changes are continually being made to improve its performance. The "windrower traction unit" is a 9260 Heston with a few mods!! The tires are actually the "skinnies" from a high clearence sprayer. We will manufacture this "header" for other people,it mounts on the orginal swather header points. The reason for the mower instead of a cultivator shovel is that we are no till, the feild is left underseeded to alfalfa all the time. A organic crop of grain and a very late or early crop of organic alfalfa is produced each year. 23 mower heads are 1/2 the width of the seeding drill. We have a auto steer system based on mechanical means, however we are looking for a Guidance system that is based on sight, these are used to spray corn growing in rows. |
The machine is being continually modified for improved performance as we use it. Hydraulic capacity was lacking last year but not anymore, 6 pumps to the 15 mower heads have a capacity of 150 gallons per minute. Next winter 3 more pumps and 8 more mower heads for a total of 23 will be added which will give capacity of 30 acres/hr. The seeding dril has 44 runs therefore 23 mower heads will do a seeding pass in 2 runs.
The choice of a 240 hp windrower tractor is turning out to be a good one. Windrowers have terrible steering control however as they steer using 2 pumps making different flow volumes to 2 motors driving the fromt wheels.
We have modified the steering for very stable steering using the back wheels. Note the pitman arm and the hydraulic ram on the back axle. It is also tilted for stability, it wants to go straight. When the windrower is to turn very sharply as at the end of a pass a electric over hyd valve opens and the back wheels free wheel like a normal windrower. Rear steer will be the basis of a very accurate auto steer system. Factories call the machine a windrower, us Alberta farmers call them swathers. |
Above is 1st year using no fertilizer or chemicals on the left and conventional farming on the right. Both have the same amount of seeds in the ground, left plot was no till seeded, heavy harrowed 3 times before wheat emergence, rock rolled and mowed between the rows. The left probably has less wild oats/weeds than the right side. My approach to organic farming is pragmatic, in 30 years most weeds will be immune to the chemicals, we have only been using them for 30 years. I think the left goes 40 bu/acre and the right 50 bu/acre, so there is more profit in the left side producing chemical free grain. |
We are straight grain farmers at Jacobs Farms Daysland so we cannot use the methods that ULF does. |
Below is a summary of how Ulf Leanders farms in Sweden, it is called ecologicall farming, in North America it would be called organic farming. Also below there is a summary of how Keith Jacobs farms in Canada, known as conventional farming. |
The regulating body for Ecological farmers in Sweden is the European Union, which produces regulations for organic and conventional farming.
Crop rotation is 2 years of barley then 4 years of grass which fixes nitrogen out of the air.
Steps are One, plow 1/2 of the barley land the previous fall. Two. spread manure on the feild and plow under 8 " or about 20 cm Three. to kill weeds after plowing harrow 3-4 times to dry out the surface and lift weeds to the surface and let them dry out. Four. Seed into the dry surface about 2" down where there is some moisture to germinate the barley. Tillage blackens the soil so the barley grows quickly and gets ahead of the weeds. Five. harvest at 16 to 18 % moisture, grain is dry at 14.5% moisture so it is put in areation bins and air is blown thru the grain to keep cool and dry.
Production is about 110 tonne of barley off 90 acres. The land has been farmed for at least 500 years in this manner. Major fertilizer groups like NPKS and micro nutreints such as copper are replaced by cow manure and nitrogen fixing plants.
No chemical herbicide, pesticide or fungicide is used, fertilizer comes from cow manure. No Genically modified organisms (GMO's) are allowed. |
Ulf's organic farm is seeded to grass 4 years out of 6
Grass is cut 3 times a year and baled with a large round baler, the baler uses plastic wrap which is sugar based plastic. The grass variety is clover that fixes N out of the atmosphere and is good nutrition for dairy cows. At least 1 times a year cow manure is put on the grass feilds, the farm has been in the family for generations so fertilizer requirements are done by looking at the plants. Every 5 years a chemical analysis of the soil is done. Some weeds such as wild oats are considered noxious weeds and must be hand picked by law and burned. Wild oat seeds are viable for up to 30 years. |
Above is a picture of a manure spreader, after spreading the manure is plowed into the ground. N from the air is fixated by nitrogen fixing plants which the dairy cows eat, that is the chain to get N into the ground. |
The organic farm is 450 acres, it produces 700 tonnes of milk/year from 70 milking cows with a total of 160 animals on the farm at a time. The cows are 50% Holstein and 50% brown swiss. There is 1 bull for heifers (a cow that has never had a calf). Artificial semination is used on older cows. The farm does not produce enough barley to feed the cattle so 15 to 18 tonne/year organic barley is bought from a neighbor. Other inputs are 900 kilogram of minerals, 300 kilograms of salt and 70 tonnes of concentrated nutrition feed certified organic, documentation comes with invoicing. Ecollogical cattle cannot be penned and fed barley, they must be on grass or pasture for 4 months/year. The farm consumes about 12000 liters/year of deisel fuel (fossil fuel), it is normal deisel that has road tax applied. Some bio-deisel is starting to be consumed, made from pine tree oil. About 130 to 140 000 kw/year of electricty is used, it must come from wind or hydro-electricity.
When the organic milk sold to a co-operative 400 of 2400 farmers are organic. a seperate truck and lines are used for organic milk.
This is the end of how ULF LEANDERS produces organic milk in Sweden. |
At present there is little communication so big food/media make many claims that us farmers dispute however we lack a communication link to the people who actually eat what we produce. Have you ever seen the claim "100 % grass fed black angus beef", how would that be implemented at a packing plant, all animals are mixed together. There are claims of non GMO peas, fact is there is no such thing as a GMO pea. A major coffee shop chain has a sign that says "Organic Ethiopia Yergacheffe soil association organically grown certification NL01 Skal 022410" What does that mean? The sign is by the entrance, not on individual products, does that mean that all products in the store are "organic" would it mean that the wheat used to make buns was organic and if so where did it come from? Go on the USDA organic website and find organic wheat growers, there are not many. |
Organic production is growing however in my area there are very few organic farmers.
Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants.
Requirements vary from country to country (List of countries with organic agriculture regulation), and generally involve a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include:
avoidance of synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives), irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge;[1]
avoidance of genetically modified seed;
use of farmland that has been free from prohibited chemical inputs for a number of years (often, three or more);
for livestock, adhering to specific requirements for feed, housing, and breeding;
keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
undergoing periodic on-site inspections.
In some countries, certification is overseen by the government, and commercial use of the term organic is legally restricted. Certified organic producers are also subject to the same agricultural, food safety and other government regulations that apply to non-certified producers.
Certified organic foods are not necessarily pesticide-free, certain pesticides are allowed. |
Lack of organic testing is probably leading to dishonesty in North America. However as more farmers join certifying groups such as "Pro Cert" which I am a member of the dishonesty will be stopped. As fossil fuel is phazed out chemical farming will be less profitable than organic farming. |
Combining the first wheat grown without chemicals or fertilizer, it is still technically not organic as it must be 3 years without fertilizer or chemicals. This was 2017, we have came a long way since then. |
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