Crop Rotations on Three Certified Organic Farms in Minnesota.

So what is your organic crop rotation?  Crop rotation, the process of growing a sequence of plant species on a given piece of land over time, is the foundation of successful organic crop production.  Ask an organic farmer to define their crop rotation and sometimes you get a straight-forward answer.  More often, however, the response is less straight-forward and a complex discussion ensues.  Case studies of the crop rotation histories from each field on three certified organic farms in Minnesota are examined over a five-year time span.  In evaluating the cropping patterns on these three farms we can begin to understand the complexity of designing a crop rotation – in fact we see that perhaps it is a misnomer to refer to ‘a crop rotation’. 

From the perspective of the accredited certification agency and the farmer, Farm A consists of 9 fields which range from 25 to 93 ha in size for a total of 484 cropped hectares, Farm B consists of 13 fields which range from 4 to 16 ha in size for a total of 129 cropped hectares, and Farm C consists of 1 field of 0.5 ha.  The two larger farms grows primarily corn, soybean, small grain and alfalfa as cash crops, whereas the smaller farm grows a large number of vegetable crops.  In evaluating the crops grown on these different fields over the past five years we realize that there is no distinct pattern of crop rotation common among the 9 fields of Farm A, the 13 fields of Farm B, or within the one field of Farm C.

It is difficult to easily describe ‘the rotation’ each of the three case study farms employs.  Each uses a multitude of rotations based on the site specific nature of the fields within the farms.