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Combined with the soybean crop, our cereal grains form the centre pivot of the farm and our constant expansion has led us to experiment with new crops and new ways to produce them under organic standards.
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We have grown a grain mix since we started and it has proven to be a valuable crop, both for seed production and livestock feed. A combination of oats, barley and field peas work together through their development to produce a high protein feed which serves as the only source of feed for our chickens, besides their scraps and whatever they find while picking around outside. It has been difficult to find varieties of the three crops that mature at the same time, to reduce the risk of shattering at harvest, but we seem to have found a satisfactory combination.
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Oats is a staple grain for us, and is an important part of the sheep’s diets.
Of course, we also grow many acres of soybeans, which we sell both as a roasted feed product and also as seed. Orders must be placed early for both seed and feed, as sourcing in Atlantic Canada can be difficult and our inventory is slowly growing, but cannot meet market demand just yet.
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Spelt is a new crop for us this year. It is an ancient wheat, that has grown in popularity in recent years due to the awareness surrounding celiac disease. Spelt is a gluten free grain, made into flour for those with gluten intolerance as part of their diet.
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Sunflowers have been a crop that Mark has experimented with in various facets, on the farm for many years now. He began growing sunflowers as a u-pick crop for the general public in 1999 and has continued that tradition every year, with customers loving the opportunity to come to the farm to pick their own sunflowers from the many varieties available.
In 2006 we grew sunflowers for their edible seed, but the birds really enjoyed the fruits of our labour. The next year we saw a market for sunflower oil and had better luck with those, since the birds were preoccupied with the seed sunflowers we planted adjacent to the oil flowers. This system seems to work well, with the seed flower acting as a distraction for the birds from the more lucrative oil flowers. |
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We have also experimented and continue to work with spelt, as a food grain and also various varieties of wheat, both as food and as feed. Red Fife is a heritage variety of wheat sought after by bread makers which we have planted and are expanding.
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Oilseed production is a very small industry in the Maritimes and research is limited on the organic production side of things. We had tried flax, but it is not very competitive with weeds, which makes it difficult grow under organic production. Canola research is still working at developing and/or finding a variety that works well in our humid coastal climate. |
| The farm also works with the Organic Agriculture Center of Canada, offering plots of land for various trials and research that will help develop data for the industry in Atlantic Canada specifically. In this work with OACC, the farm has had trials with faba beans, corn, oilseed pumpkins and numerous cereal variety trials. They have all been interesting, relevant and a part of what we consider makes Barnyard Organics unique and a forward thinking operation. |
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