Pure Montana Organics

Carl Eidsness' place is probably the most unusual farm in the WWOOFusa catalog. Carl raises two different crops, in a three year rotation, meaning that at least one third of his acreage is left fallow each year. Carl usually plants 1200 acres of durum wheat and 1200 acres of field peas. That's right, Carl farms 3600 acres in Montana's north-eastern corner. He does this with the help of his nephew, Blaine, and Clinton, the guy who drives truck. 3600 acres, three people, and some really big tractors. No "crawling and grubbing" here.

Carl says he's been in the WWOOFing catalog for a number of years, and I'm the first person who has actually come to Reserve, MT, to help out and learn about large scale organic farming. There's no compost pile here (although Carl has wanted to find a feedlot operation nearby where he might get some manure), no brewing compost tea, no cover crops. The field peas, which are sold mostly as feed to organic chicken operations, add nitrogen and some biomass. Wheat is the main cash crop, although Carl also occasionally raises flax (for seed, not fiber...there's really no linen industry in this country), and mustard (for seed...that's right, your dijon mustard might actually have come from Montana!), which he sells mostly in Europe, where the commitment to organically grown foods is somewhat more serious than it is here.

I actually (unfortunately) arrived at the only real slack time in the whole growing season. Carl says he and his crew work as much as 12 hours a day at planting time (May, June), and at harvest (August, September). July is the month for the impossible task of catching up on all the miscellaneous jobs that get put off the rest of the year, while in the fields the wheat and peas are just growing. There is, of course, no spraying for weeds or insects, although the fallow fields are turned over regularly to control weed growth. This is dry-land farming country, no irrigation...the crops survive (or not) on the rain that falls and the water that has built up in the soil during the fallow season.

Carl's mom, Betty, tells me this is the greenest year in her memory. Usually the uncultivated lands (mostly used for pasturing cattle) are brown by this time (it has been a good year for mosquitos too!). Carl's family has been in the area for three generations...the original farm was homesteaded by Carl's great-aunt.

Carl has increased the farm's acreage significantly, and he is no longer entirely alone in using organic methods in this area. The trade-offs between organic and conventional are economic as well as ideological. Conventional farmers have to put a lot of money into the ground (fertilizers, weed control) before they even plant a crop. Organic crops get a premium price, some years selling for as much as twice what conventional farmers get, but yields are at the mercy of weed and insect pressure. Conventional farmers often have to borrow money to purchase their chemicals, while the organic farmer starts the season in the clear. Of course, everybody hopes the hailstorms will pass them by. During my stay, some farms to the east of us got completely hailed out...twenty minutes of golf-ball sized hail will do that.

3600 acres, plus perhaps that much more in waterways, leased pasture, conservation reserves and whatnot. Not quite as far as the eye can see...but the air is pretty clear in Montana, and on a good day you can see quite a ways.