Homestead Organics Farm Reaching Their Goals with NRCS Assistance
Homestead Organics Farm has been using USDA NRCS assistance, both technical and financial, to reach their goals of protecting and improving their natural resources and providing healthy, local food to their community.
See the Conservation for the Future - Homestead Organics, Hamilton, Montana video to hear about their work.
High-resolution photos of Homestead Organics Farm.
Homestead Organics Farm Reaching Their Goals with NRCS Assistance
Getting Started
What brings someone through the doors of their local USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office for the first time? It’s different for everyone, but in many cases, the producer’s goal is addressing one specific problem on their operation. This was true of Homestead Organics Farm in Hamilton, Mont.
They were noticing some soil erosion problems in early spring and late fall – before their crops were planted and after they were harvested. Laura Garber, owner and co-operator of Homestead Organics, approached the local Hamilton NRCS office and talked to Stacy Welling, NRCS soil conservationist, about a windbreak.
“They have soils that are fairly susceptible to wind erosion,” said Welling. “We helped them by designing the windbreak and then they received funding through the organic special initiative through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).”
Building on Success
Homestead Organics is a diverse farm on 14 acres in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana. They raise vegetables, poultry, and operate an education center on the family-run farm. Making the most of the acreage is important and Homestead Organics has been working with NRCS to build on that first windbreak conservation practice.
“As the NRCS representative, Stacy knows our farm and is able see some of the needs that our farm has,” said Garber. “We are becoming better farmers by Stacy knowing what she knows about NRCS programs and applying them to what we’re doing. It’s a back and forth that’s really improving our farm.”
“With NRCS help, we are doing cover cropping and we’ve got two windbreak tree-rows that we planted for windbreak, for wildlife habitat, and for food production. We’ve also participated in the EQIP high tunnel program, so we have a high tunnel that we’re using. We’ve been doing soil monitoring and soil testing also,” said Garber.
Cover Crops
“Cover crops are incorporated in their crop rotation. They’re grown to achieve different objectives like to control erosion, to control weeds, for soil health purposes, to build up soil organic matter, and to break up compaction layers,” said Welling.
As an organic farm, Homestead Organics does not use herbicides or other chemicals. Cover crops keep soil covered so that weeds do not get a chance to grow in beds that are not currently used for production. Garber says it would be easy to plant the idle land to vegetables, but they consider the soil health benefits of the cover-cropped years to be just as important.
“This year the production is adding back to the soil. The soil is the product,” said Garber. “The bonus with doing this cost-share on cover crops with the NRCS is it’s really directing us to be really specific about when we are doing cover cropping and where. So, it is helping us be better farmers.
Homestead Organics planted a cover crop “cocktail,” or mixture of six different plant species. Each species was planted to achieve a specific goal. The overall objectives were to control erosion and control weeds, but cover crops are soil health multi-taskers, like Garber herself.
“We have some grass species that are increasing the organic matter and the carbon. We’ve got some legumes, like the peas, that are fixating nitrogen and incorporating that in the soil. We’ve got some deep-rooted crops that will hopefully break up any compaction going on,” said Welling.
“What we’ve got planted here is ideally going to add a lot of organic matter,” said Garber. “We are also providing habitat with the cover crop. We are providing habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators. We are enhancing what the rest of our field has to offer to the greater plant, animal, and insect community.”
Before working with NRCS, the entire farm was consistently in production. Garber said this was an unsustainable practice and they were in danger of becoming soil miners. “Now, with the tree break from NRCS cost-share and this cover cropping we are really able to better manage, so we aren’t using everything all of the time,” said Garber.
High Tunnels
High tunnels, commonly called “hoop houses,” are usually large metal structures with plastic covering. Unlike a greenhouse, they are not heated. High tunnels protect plants from severe weather and allow farmers to extend their growing seasons earlier into spring and later into fall. High tunnels can facilitate efficient practices like drip irrigation to deliver water and nutrients. Using high tunnels, farmers are able to provide healthy, local food to their communities that requires less energy and transportation inputs.
“High tunnels address multiple natural resource issues. They reduce erosion and they also extend the growing season. The high tunnel helps them grow a lot of different crop species that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to grow just because of the climate here,” said Welling. “For Homestead Organics, it helps them achieve one of their number one missions which is to grow and sell food locally.”
More Information
In addition to windbreaks, cover crops, and high tunnels, Homestead Organics has also used NRCS assistance for cross-fencing to facilitate a rotational grazing plan for goats and cows, nutrient management, and an energy efficiency assessment of their irrigation system. All of those practices are part of a personalized conservation plan developed specifically for Homestead Organics Farm by the Hamilton NRCS field office. NRCS staff, including Welling, also provide technical assistance throughout the implementation phase of each project. Helping farmers and ranchers to get started using conservation practices in the management of their operations can help to improve water and air quality, wildlife, pollinator, and fisheries habitat, plant, livestock, and soil health, economic stability of Montana’s working lands and communities, and much more.