8- Lancaster Farming. Saturday. A|
Organic
(Continued from P<|e 1|
research. Most of the
research is done by people
who have things to sell to the
farmer, and those com*
panics aren't going to look
for projects that are going to
hurt their sales."
At the same time, Hartz
said he thinks there's a lot of
good work being done by
farmers and small labs
across the country but they
never hear about each other.
Funds are so limited that
there’s no way of spreading
the word, he feels.
"We do have some sup
porters,” he said. “Some of
the younger agronomists and
soil scientists are thinking
about non-chemical farming
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methods. We have some
supporters in the Penn
sylvania Department of
Agriculture, like Jim
McHale, but he’s pretty
controversial.”
One of the problems with
getting the story out about
organic foods, Hartz said, is
that the image of the in
dustry has been tainted by a
few radicals who seem to get
all the attention. The abuses
and extreme claims made by
some marketers haven’t
helped either.
Hartz is more moderate in
his views about organic
farming. He feels that the
organic farmer should be
able to compete on an even
basis with the chemical
practices of his neighbors.
"There’s an unlimited
market for quality farm
products,” Hartz said, "and
if we can learn how to
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produce it at a good price, we
won't have any trouble
selling it.”
“This whole chemical
approach is too new. Soil
changes too slowly for us to
really know what’s hap
pening, and I think one
generation just reaps the
woe of another. .Fifty years
from now we might discover
that all those chemicals
really are good for the soil.
But I think 50 years is too
long a time to take that many
chances.”
Hartz doesn’t feel the
whole country could switch
to organic methods over
night, because the initial
yield reductions would
cripple the nation’s supply.
He does feel, though, that the
right kind of research could
yield a farm technology that
could produce just as much
without chemicals as we do
today with chemicals.
Even though he opposes
their indiscriminate use,
Hartz doesn’t entirely
disdane chemicals for
special cases. "I had a sod
waterway that I wanted to
get established, so I gave it a
shot of nitrogen,” he said.
“Nitrogen can produce quick
growth, but the long-term
answer to fertility lies in the
soil, not the fertilizer truck.
If I have sick animals. I’ll
medicate them before I’ll let
them die. Some organic
producers wouldn’t do that,
but I just can’t watch my
livestock die.”
Beef is the main source of
income for Hartz, and he
sells most of it to consumers
who come right to the door of
his house. “We used to sell
quite a bit through natural
food stores,” Hartz, “but we
ran into pricing, packaging
and transportation
problems. The individuals
stopping here are buying just
as much from us as the
stores used to take.
“Our prices now are pretty
competitive with prices for
non-organic beef in the
regular supermarkets”.
When we sold through a
store, we had to get our
price, of course, and the
store added their profit
margin and that priced the
product way out of line.”
What’s an organic steer?
“I really don’t know,” Hartz
said. “We don’t use any
medications here on the
farm, of course. But it’s
impossible to buy feeders
that haven’t been medicated.
And I don’t know if I’d want
to try to ship a calf without
some kind of vaccination.
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You could say that because
an animal has been
medicated at some point in
its life it’s no longer organic.
I can’t go along with that."
In his feeding program,
Hartz uses his own grain,
and he uses raw soybeans for
his protein source. He adds
calcium, minerals' and
vitamins to his com silage,
and also feeds some hay.
Dried kelp, the organic
movement’s wonder stuff, is
in his feeding regimen, but
Hartz said he’s not too sure
about the economics of kelp
feeding.
No diethyl stilbesterol has
ever gone into a Hartz steer,
and he says it never will. "If
beef farmers were smart,”
he said, "they’d try to get
DES outlawed. All that bad
publicity about DES has
created a bad image for
beef, and I think it’s hurt
sales.”
Hartz bought his last load
of Virginia feeders through
the Pennsylvania Farmers
Association. They’re
Holstein steers and he says
the animals have had no
problems on the organic
ration. “I’m not completely
satisfied with my program,”
he said. “I still haven’t quite
licked some respiratory
problems, but I’m making
progress. I’ve learned that
you don’t automatically
solve your health problems
when you switch over to an
organic program.”
While beef sales are the
biggest item in the Hartz
operation, he has no in
tention of expanding the
number of animals. “I think
we’ve turned the comer on
beef sales,” Hartz said. “I
don’t think the American
consumer is going to keep on
buying more and more beef.
They’re going to more of a
vegetable and grain diet, and.
I think I can serve that
market.”
The whole grain market is
making big strides, Hartz
feels, and if producers can
get quality to where it
belongs, he thinks more
people will buy whole gram
products. He already
produces whole grain wheat
flour with a small mill in his
basement salesroom, and
this is sold directly to con
sumers. He also sells some
soybeans, and is working on
an open pollinated corn
program.
“If people want more of a
grain diet, quality becomes
more of an issue,” Hartz
said. “You can’t feed them
corn with a six percent
protein content. My open
pollinated corn varies
anywhere from 6.3 percent to
10.4 percent protein and it
can go as high as 13 percent,
If I get my soil working
better."
Last year, Hartz ex
perimented with several
open pollinated varieties and
hopes to try more this year.
Eventually, he thinks it
might be possible to plant bis
entire acreage in open
pollinated varieties. The
problems he feels need to be
licked are ear height, stalk
strength and stalk height.
Weed problems are
handled with a rotary hoe
and a cultivator, which is
admittedly a lot of work.
“You have to be kind of a die
hard to stick it out,” Hartz
said. Weeds in soybeans are
handled the same as for
com, while there are very
few wee(T problems in the
wheat crop.
Weeds are at least par-
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tolly a soil problem, Hartz
feels, although he has no idea
now how to solve the
problem. Soil fertility Is at
the very root of organic
farming methods, and there
are dozens of approaches in
this area. “I don’t have the
answers,” Hartz said.
“We’ve got green sand, rock
phosphate, compost, and
green manure. We need to
find out the best cost vs.
yield figures, and we need to
do it on a lot of different
farms. We also need a soil
testing lab that will make
recommendations based on
the way we want to farm.’’
Paul Hartz believes in
organic fanning and he’ll
continue honing his methods
until he’s convinced he can
be competitive with
chemical farmers. He’s the
first to admit, though, that
there are problems. What’s
the biggest problem? “We
need a quicker way to go
from chemical to organic
farming,” he concluded.
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