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VARIETY DESCRIPTIONS
SMALL GRAINS
‘Frederick’ Wheat
- Soft White Winter Wheat - developed in
Canada. This is a mid- season variety with
tall strong straw and high test weight. It is
moderately resistant to loose smut, leaf rust
and mildew.
‘Arapahoe’
Hard Red Winter Wheat – a new choice for organic
farmers in New York, this red wheat has done
well in university trials in the Upper Midwest
and comes to us from the Albert Lea seed
company.
Spelt
- This variety of spelt is suitable for both
feed and food grade use. It has good yield with
tall straw.
Winter Barley
- 6-row winter barley is medium height with good
yield, early maturity, disease resistance and
lodging tolerance. Not a malting type.
Triticale
- Triticale is a the result of a cross between
wheat and rye, producing a high yielding feed
grain or an exceptionally good spring forage,
especially when mixed with winter peas.
Triticale is very winter hardy and is tolerant
to most soil conditions, doing better on wet
soil than other small grains. Triticale is
tall, with good straw yields and lodging
resistance.
Rye
-- Rye is the tallest of the small grains, with
high straw production. It also has a very
extensive root system to loosen soil and help
build soil organic matter. Rye is strongly
allelopathic for natural weed control. Rye
makes a good cover crop. This fall, we will
have the varieties Ducold and AC Remington.
COVER CROPS
Buckwheat
-- Buckwheat is prized as a cover crop for weed
control on organic farms. Buckwheat is also
able to release phosphorus from the soil. This
buckwheat is suitable for cover crop use but not
for farmers growing buckwheat under contract
where certain varieties are specified.
Hairy Vetch
– this biennial legume produces large amounts of
organic material and nitrogen early in the
season. Can become a persistent weed problem
when rotated with winter small grains.
Austrian winter peas
– when grown in combination with small grains,
these hardy forage peas produce truly impressive
amounts of nitrogen, organic matter and cover in
the spring. Will over-winter in the Finger
Lakes region of New York.
Medium Red Clover
– many organic farmers underseed all their small
grains with a red clover cover crop. This
provides good ground cover once the small grain
is harvested with generous organic matter and
nitrogen production
Oats
– planted in the late summer and fall, oats will
produce vigorous vegetative growth with no
grain. This can be useful as a cover crop or
fall forage.
PASTURE SPECIES
We also have organic and conventional untreated
seed of BMR sorghum/sudangrass, Japanese millet,
forage turnip, Italian ryegrass, perennial
ryegrass, alfalfa, fescue, Reed canarygrass,
white clovers, timothy, orchardgrass plus
several pasture mixes.
COMING IN SPRING 2009
We will have American Organic. Viking (Albert
Lea) Welter, and Blue River organic hybrid corn
and soybeans, our own open pollinated Wapsie
Valley, VK-13 and Early Riser corn, plus several
varieties of organic oats, spring barley, spring
wheat, spring spelt, spring triticale, field
peas, soybeans, and a wide selection of organic
and conventional seed for pasture, forage, and
cover crop.
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