Local farmer embraces organic methods

A local farmer near the town of Cathay, N.D., is doing things a little unconventionally.

Brad Wolbert, a native of Minnesota who now works on the Bibelheimer family farm with his father-in-law, has begun operating an organic regenerative farm.

Requiring significantly more work and dedication to manage than conventional farming, it's a style of growing crops not commonly seen in North Dakota or anywhere else for that matter. But for those with the passion to make it work, farming organically while implementing regenerative practices can be a rewarding and more profitable experience.

"It's one of those things that I don't know if you could really talk someone into unless they're passionate about it," said Wolbert. "It's good but it also has its difficulties, so I don't like to try talking people into it and I don't like to brag about it because it's not the easier path."

Wolbert would certainly know – he's been farming for years and currently does both conventional farming and organic regenerative farming on their land.

They've been farming organically for around 5 years now and are officially organic certified, which requires not spraying synthetic fertilizer, herbicides or chemicals of any kind for 36 months.

Without the help of chemicals, organic farmers must find other means of fertilizing their crops and managing weeds.

Wolbert said he's used compost, manure, organic sugar and fish that's been ground up into a liquid emulsion to keep his crops fertilized, just to name a few.

As for weed control, he said they're always looking for different options that could prove effective.

For example, he said they've purchased an electric "zapper" and have literally started zapping the weeds with 200,000 volts of electricity. Weed management, said Wolbert, is among the most time consuming aspects of organic farming.

"With conventional farming you can go away for the weekend and come back and spray it when you want," said Wolbert. "With organic, you have to be out there constantly either zapping the weeds or cultivating.

"... It's probably more labor intensive, but for the most part I guess I'd rather be doing that than spraying chemicals out there."

Of course, the benefit of all that extra work is the much better prices organic crops can be sold for.

Crops grown naturally, without the use of any chemicals, can be sold for more than double what the exact same crops farmed conventionally can be sold for, explained Wolbert.

And according to the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota, organic production has been proving profitable despite organic crop farms managing considerably less land on average than conventional farms.

Meanwhile, Wolbert recently began implementing regenerative practices on the farm as well.

That means using farming tactics that are healthy for the land and topsoil, such as the use of cover crops and various products that are sustainable, reusable and available locally.

Using local manure has been a big part of farming both organically and regeneratively, said Wolbert. But having enough fertilizer and keeping enough nitrogen in the ground is a constant battle, and Wolbert added that they'll likely have to get some animals on the farm as well.

"That'll probably bring more headache in addition to all the other stuff I got going on," said Wolbert.

But he explained how having animals on the farm would go a long way toward having enough manure to use as fertilizer, in addition to a few other benefits.

He also mentioned how he could grow alfalfa to feed the animals, which is a plant that can naturally help farmers manage weeds – just another example of thinking outside the box, and taking advantage of natural qualities to grow crops without the use of chemicals.

In a sense, it's a new method of farming but also the oldest and most-often used method in human history. It wasn't all that long ago when farmers didn't have the option of herbicides, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, and had no other choice but to farm organically with regenerative practices.

These days, however, organic farmers are few and far between, and are sometimes even looked down on.

"There's not anyone who can really help you out," said Wolbert about the difficulties he faced when first starting to farm organically. "Most next door neighbors look poorly on organic. It's much easier just to go out there and spray and be like everyone else."

Wolbert said he's mostly had to figure it out through lots of reading, attending conferences and good old-fashioned trial-and-error – and he said there's been plenty of errors along the way.

Nevertheless, despite all its difficulties, Wolbert said he's passionate about what he's doing and enjoys spending time with his four young children out on the farm, who he hopes will share his passion for farming as they get older.

"I'm at that point right now where hopefully I'm over the hump of the learning curve, so I'm hoping it's going to get easier," said Wolbert. "But for the most part I'm just enjoying time with family and some of the activities we get to do with it."

Anyone interested in learning about organic farming can do so by visiting usda.gov, which offers an abundance of information and even assistance for any farmers looking to transition.