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Texas TOPP is a five-year partnership program designed to effectively recruit, train, mentor and continually advise farmers who want to transition to organic production.  Its overall goals are to build up successful Organic Farmer to Farmer Mentorships that are a part of a larger Organic Community Building program.  Within this community will be developed organic resources available to both transition and certified growers, mentors, allied industry, and agencies that provide the needed help and support to a growing Texas organic movement.  This Technical Assistance and Training will benefit both certified organic and transition organic while strengthening the overall organic program. Outside of this effort and yet integral to long term success is a Workforce Training and Development effort that focuses on how best to train future organic industry professionals.

Texas TOPP as a partnership program will be led by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and the overall AgriLife Organic Program but with special partnerships that include Texas’ higher education institutions, USDA agencies, nonprofit organizations, and farm associations.  Efforts of all participants will interact and impact conventional farmers, transitional organic and certified organic farmers and the many allied industry supporters of organic in Texas. 

Texas TOPP will emphasize and solidify a commitment to organic agriculture by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension and help ensure the future of organic within Texas agriculture for generations to come. More information will be coming but Texas Topp has already begun!

As compost and manure use is more common because of the high cost of chemical fertilizers we are seeing some of the weeds that are associated with cattle feeding starting to appear in our fields. This is one of the culprits Common Mallow and it is one you can easily recognize – it gets everywhere!

This past spring, I bought some compost to use in my yard and garden areas and it has been a great product to use. Of course, we have not had a lot of rain or cooler weather since late spring, and I never noticed any real weed seeds from the compost. I was very hopeful I had escaped the problem until fall! When we got some rains, and some cooler weather here comes the mallow with a vengeance.

The fortunate solution came at Christmas time when 8-degree weather killed it to the ground and no more has come up since. Does that mean my invasion of mallow is over – far from it! It will be back in spring and with a vengeance but a hoe or even an organic weed control product will take it if I start very early.

“Ten years ago, only about 10 million acres in the U.S. were planted with cover crops. Today that’s up to about 22 million acres, and the number is increasing by about 8% annually.” This is a quote from this article on the ancient farming practice of cover crops (click here for article). Certainly, organic farmers are familiar with and use cover crops and in our “Great Plains” region the Organic Farming Research Foundation has survey results that show over 85% of you use cover and green manure crops in your organic operation.

Because we use and need cover crops and because I give organic programs on cover crops, I try to read all the research I can and occasionally I find something that just “tickles the brain.” I accidentally came across a study done at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces entitled, “Fall-sown small grain cover crops for weed suppression and soil moisture management in an irrigated organic agroecosystem” in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. (Click the image to read the study)

It is a very interesting read but in summary they conducted the trials over several years with many different cereals and found that the barley varieties gave the best weed suppression and least soil moisture losses. Here are a few quotes from the results:

In our study, earlier maturing varieties (‘Robust’, ‘UC603’) also displayed high levels of weed suppression. The apparent relationship between early maturity and weed suppression ability suggests that time to canopy closure is a significant cause of differences in weed suppression among barley varieties.

Our study demonstrated that a barley cover crop did not deplete the soil moisture, and during one season (2016–2017) actually conserved it following a long dry period (Figs 1 and 2). The beneficial ecosystems services demonstrated in this study may help reduce the hesitancy to incorporate cover crops into southwestern irrigated cropping systems.

The varieties ‘Robust’ and ‘UC603’ did an excellent job of weed suppression during two seasons. Thus, these barley varieties (‘Robust’ and ‘UC603’) are recommended for organic cropping systems in southern New Mexico and similar semi-arid environments.

These recommended barley varieties could fill the need for a ‘non-thirsty’ cover crop in the southwestern United States and play an important role in the effective management of weeds in organic production systems.

In summary the barley varieties they planted had far less weeds than in the unplanted control (less than 5 weeds per square meter (11 square feet)) and soil moisture in the unplanted control (bare ground) was consistently less than the soil moisture content in the barley plots. Not bad and something that should make us want to plant some barley!

Field bindweed is one of those weeds that can seem like a slight problem, something you could just pull up or hoe out and be done – WRONG! Field bindweed is a perennial weed with an extensive root system and a fast-growing top to match. One vine can grow 3-4 feet and it easily grows to the tops of field crops and begins to cover them. Its roots grow equally as fast and if you hoe or chop it out the root pieces just grow a new plant!

The seeds are small but not as small as many others and certainly not as small as pigweed. What makes this weed a real problem in field crops is the fact that plowing spreads the seeds and root pieces so that soon the entire field is covered in field bindweed. Why is it not a problem in pastures or grazed crops? Simply cattle love it! They will continue to eat the weed down and without leaves to make carbohydrates the plant eventually starves to death. The use of grazing is a key to regenerative agriculture, and this is one of the reasons – weed control.

Is there a bioherbicide we can use in organic crop farming? Potentially yes, because over 3 decades ago some researchers found a fungus causing damage to the leaves of field bindweed – Phomopsis convolvulus. This fungus actually carries the title convolvulus as part of its name which is part of the scientific name of field bindweed – Convolvulus arvensis. In this experiment they grew out the fungus and sprayed low to high concentrations of the fungus on various stages of field bindweed growth. Overall, they found that the fungus did kill the leaves but that the extensive root system had enough energy to put out new shoots. Two or more applications are suggested very similar to what is recommended when spraying any chemical control products.

This type of research into bioherbicides is progressing at a fast pace nowadays owing to the lack of chemical herbicides and weed herbicide tolerance. These developments are a big help to the organic grower who can use an organic approved herbicide when nothing else works – and unfortunately field bindweed can easily fit that category.

In December 2022 the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the Certified Organic Survey 2021 Summary. As you can see from the chart above there is a lot of data and Texas is continuing to grow in organics. This is not a survey of every organic grower in Texas since we have 383 based on the Integrity Database, but it was a good number at 258 farms or 67%. It would be great to get all the numbers but anyone who does survey work will tell you 67% is really good!

Of the 258 farms they have 240,806 acres in organic agriculture. 247 farms have 198,990 acres in cropland, and 58 farms have 41,816 acres in pastures. How does this break down in value? 238 farms with crops including nursery and greenhouse have sales of $179,324,000 each year. 27 farms sell livestock and poultry animals valued at $45,736,000 each year and 20 livestock and poultry producers sell $347,152,000 in animal products each year, for a total of $572,212,000 Texas organic products sold every year.

What is the breakdown on farm size? 76% of the 258 farms or 196 farms sell $100,000 or more in commodities equaling 99.56% of sales. In fact, 95.77% of all organic sales in Texas come from producers selling $500,000 or more every year. Now you may think this is just Texas, but in general this is pretty much the same breakdown for all the states above Texas in sales (Pennsylvania, Washington and California).

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I pulled all the Texas numbers out for these various crops below. Remember these numbers are for the 258 farms surveyed and are not fully reflective of the total yearly production of organic in Texas.

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This the Texas numbers for livestock production and represents a large share of Texas’ organic production.

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This is interesting and represents a look at what farms spent their money on as it relates to organic purchases. Organic feed numbers are going to be huge for 2022 and probably into 2023 and you better add labor into that as well!

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This is fairly self-explanatory. It is a list of practices and how many of the 258 farms used the practice. Hopefully we can continue to improve all of them!

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These were some general questions asked as a part of the survey and I have put the results here. The fact that only 49 farms take advantage of the $500 Certification Cost Share program makes me wonder if the process is just too difficult? The small number with an illegal practice is really pretty good. The few illegal practices mean that we are getting GMO contamination, which we knew, and that growers may have used something they thought was legal – at least that is what I choose to believe – but wasn’t!

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Production issues continue to be the main problem with organic production in Texas and according to my surveys and other surveys, weeds are a top priority. I am not sure what all is meant by regulatory and hopefully someone will let me know!

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Last Chart, I promise! This just tells me that some older farmers are discovering organic!

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Here is a link to the summary if interested!

Winter is a great time to plant trees and shrubs. It is highly recommended that you put any tree or shrub out well before hot weather to give plants a time to grow some roots (yes, trees do grow roots in winter) before they have to face hot temperatures. Most fruit and nut tree nurseries in Texas are opening up for the season now and will be open through March. What a great present for Christmas even if I might be hard to put under the “tree.”

Container plants have the advantage of having all of their roots intact and ready to grow if the pot was properly cared for. Container grown plants are great but be careful! Nurseries grow plants in pots so that they can be sold easily but trees continue to grow even in a pot. This growing means that pots can become too small for the tree as it grows and so the plant becomes root-bound (stunted). To check and see if a plant is root-bound just hold the pot and lift the tree out of the pot. If the roots are just to the pot sides and no roots are circling, then the tree should be okay. When planting a container grown plant dig a hole bigger than the plant by double the width but no deeper. Remove the tree from the pot and plant into the hole as quickly as possible. Air kills the little white hair roots very fast if not put into the ground. Don’t be afraid to tamp down the soil into the hole to get good soil to root contact. Once the hole is backfilled with soil then water thoroughly to remove the air spaces.

B&B or Balled and Burlapped plants are not container grown and you need to understand that before ordering them. These plants may have been grown in a nursery or maybe even in the wild, but they were dug out of the ground so that many of the roots have been cut off. In B&B trees the soil ball is still intact and they can be very heavy. In fact, there should be about 10-12 inches of ball for every inch of tree trunk diameter. When you get a B&B plant remove all plastic including any string or twine. You can leave the burlap only if it is not plastic. If there is a wire basket you can leave it as the roots will grow right through. The biggest problem with B&B trees is that the hole is usually dug with the same tree spade that dug the tree. Tree spades leave the hole sides very slick and hard for roots to penetrate. The best hole is wider but not deeper than the ball.

Bareroot trees are just trees that have been dug very carefully in the nursery so that the roots are pretty much intact but there is no soil. As you can imagine these trees are much more fragile but without the soil they are easier to handle both for the nurseryman and you. Most bareroot trees are dug and then “healed in” at the nursery till you purchase them. To plant them be very sure you keep the roots moist at all times while you’re planting. Dig the hole as deep as the roots go and just as wide. Put the tree in the hole and backfill slowly adding dirt while you pack it. Once the hole is full you need to water well to take out air pockets. 

Bareroot trees are traditionally much cheaper than their container or balled and burlapped counterparts but bareroot trees need to be planted now in the winter before leaf growth.  Most fruit and nut trees are sold this way and almost all commercial orchards are developed using bareroot trees.  Usually, bareroot tree nurseries sell during the months of December, January, February and some into March.  Again, it is important to get these trees in the ground before they break winter dormancy so that some roots develop before leaves do.