Growing organic grains

Organic farming is rooted in smaller farmers searching for ways to keep farming. Now, though, growth is also occurring among larger farmers looking for ways to diversify their grain farms, says Scott Ausborn, an Ida Grove, Iowa, farmer and president of the Iowa Organic Association.

"They are dipping their toes in the market, seeing how it performs," he says.

Like their commodity counterparts, prices paid for some organic grains have declined. Organic corn prices have drifted downward from $9.50 per bushel in the spring of 2018 to around $8 per bushel now, says Ausborn. However, organic soybean prices continue to hover at around $19 to $20 per bushel during the same time frame.

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"Organic farmers are looking for double the price of commodity crops," says Ausborn. "It takes into account lower yields and that we are not doing a standard corn-and-soybean rotation. Typically, you will do an oats year that generates less income. You may only plant corn once every three years."

Since organic farmers cannot apply herbicides, they manage weeds through tools like crop competition. Ausborn underseeds alfalfa or red clover when he solid-seeds oats.

Fraudulent marketing of domestic and imported organic grain has also challenged the industry. "Long term, that can hurt consumer confidence,"
he says.