1. Putting Your
System Together
George Kuepper
Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture

2. This publication outlines the
origins of organic agriculture. It
highlights the concepts, ideas,
and milestones that define it as a
distinct and sustainable
approach to farming that
involves more than simply
precluding synthetic pesticides
and fertilizers. 23 pages.
Copies can be downloaded free-
of-charge at:
http://www.kerrcenter.com/publi
cations/organic-philosophy-
report.pdf
Print copies can be requested
from:
The Kerr Center for Sustainable
Agriculture
P.O. Box 588
Poteau, OK 74953
Tel: 918-647-9123

3.  A Production System that…
respond(s) to site-specific conditions
by integrating cultural, biological
and mechanical practices that foster
cycling of resources, promote
ecological balance, and conserve
biodiversity. §205.2

4. A group of interacting,
interrelated, or
interdependent
elements forming a
complex whole.
from: Answers.com

5. HEALTHY SOCIETY
HEALTHY PEOPLE
HEALTHY FOOD
HEALTHY SOIL

6. Evolution Of and the Influences On American Organic Farming
Organizations
F.H. King J.I. Rodale Wm. Albrecht OFPANA/
NOP
Pioneers
OTA
Events
R. Steiner & A. Howard E. Balfour Silent Spring Standard
USDA’s
Anthroposophy OFPA Implemented
L. Bromfield E. Pfeiffer Organic Report
USDA
Countercultural Influences Organic National
Environmental Consciousness Certification Standard
Organic By Neglect &
Sustainable Practices
Industry
from the Asian
Standards
Continent Certified
Organic
Production
Convertible Husbandry
(America Mid-1800s)
Humus Organic Eco-Agriculture
High Farming Farming Farming
(Europe 1800s) Integrated
Production, etc.
Agroecology &
Permaculture
Demeter
Biodynamics Certified
Production
▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2006

7. Organic Soil Management
— An Old Saying among Organic Farmers

8. The Soil Food Web
2005 National Center for Appropriate Technology

9. What the Food Web Needs
Sunlight
Air Water
Organic Nutrient
Matter 2005 National Center for Appropriate Technology Elements

10. Organic Soil Management
Feeding the Soil Food Web means
providing organic matter as food. In
organic farming, this has been called
the Law of Return—
returning mineral- rich
organic material to
the soil.

11. Plant Nutrition
Under Natural Conditions
Source of plant
nutrition:
Digestive - plant residues
processes and - animal remains
nutrient recycling - animal wastes
in the
Rhizosphere:
The Soil Food Web
Parent Soluble Minerals
Plant
Rock
11
Organic Compounds
Other “phytamins”
Roots
Material
2005 National Center for Appropriate Technology

12. Conventional Management
Organic
Matter Conventional
ζ as Crop Soluble
ζ Residues Fertilizers
Digestive
ζ processes and
nutrient recycling
in the
Rhizosphere:
The Soil Food Web
Parent
Rock 12
Soluble Minerals Plant
Organic Compounds
Material 2005 National Center for Appropriate Technology Benefits
Other Roots

13. Humus Farming/Organic Management
Organic Materials
and Methods:
Composts
Crop Residues
Green Manures
Livestock Manures
Natural Fertilizers
Biological Inoculants
Digestive Rotations w/ sod crops
processes and nutrient
recycling
in the
Rhizosphere:
The Soil Food Web
Parent Soluble Minerals
Rock 13 Organic Compounds
Plant
Material Other Benefits
2005 National Center for Appropriate Technology
Roots

14. Self-Generated Fertility Weed Suppression
•Fixes nitrogen •Less weed stimulation
•Releases bound nutrients •Weed seed predation
•Makes nutrients available •Easier cultivation
•Air/water balance
Suppresses Disease Pest Insects Reduced
•Natural antibiotics •More predators & parasites
•Nematode predation •Natural insect disease agents
•Aeration/Drainage •Induced resistance in crops
•Induced resistance in crops

15. Organic Farmers
claim:
Organic Crops Resist Pests
Do organically-
grown plants
develop induced
resistance to
diseases and
insect pests?

16. Organic Crops Resist Pests
•Predisposition theory
•Insect pests as
nature’s garbage men
•Organic as plant-
positive vs. pest-
negative approach

17. Organic Crops Resist Pests
Mycorrhizal
Associations as
an element in
stress reduction
and induced
resistance
Root from sorghum with vesicles ("little sacs") of the
mycorrhizal fungus called Gigaspora rosea.
http://microbezoo.commtechlab.msu.edu/zoo/zdrm0194.html

19. CANNON
HORTICULTURE
PROJECT

20. A
Greenhouse N Kerr Center’s
 B Cannon Horticulture Plots
2011 Boundaries & Dimensions

 Total area: 6.67 acres
Herb Bed Block Bed
Dimensions:
Greenhouse: 22’ x 30’
Herb Bed: 10’ x 32’
Block Bed: 5’ x 38’
Fields A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4:
90’ x 282’
Field A-1 .58 a Field U: 56’ x 308’
Buffering:
Kerr Road
 
All fields and beds have 25 feet
Field A-2 .58 a of organically managed buffer.
The Greenhouse has 15 feet of
organically managed buffer on
the NW side. However, no
doors or air intakes occur on
691 ft
Field A-3 .58 a that side.
 
Field A-4 .58 a
 Denotes Hydrants/Irrigation access
Field U .35 a = approx. 50 ft
C
D

21. Heritage Vegetable Trials
(Okra & Sweet Sorghum in 2008 shown)

22. Copies can be
downloaded free-of-
charge at:
http://www.kerrcenter.co
m/publications/summer-
cover-crops.pdf
Print copies can be
requested from:
The Kerr Center for
Sustainable Agriculture
P.O. Box 588
Poteau, OK 74953
Tel: 918-647-9123

23. 1. Crop Rotation (the sequencing of crops
over time on a field)
2. The inclusion of cover crops and/or
perennial forage crops within a crop
rotation

24. Kerr Center’s
A-1 2008 Tomatoes Cannon Horticulture Plots
2009 *
2010 *
2011 *
2012 Tomatoes Example of how a
tomato crop might
A-2 2008 *
2009 Tomatoes be rotated
2010 *
2011 *
2012 *
A-3 2008 * A-1 A-2
2009 *
2010 Tomatoes
2011 *
2012 *
A-4 2008 *
2009 * A-3
2010 * A-4
2011 Tomatoes
2012 *

25.  Cover crops are plants you grow or
allow to grow, not for harvest, but
for purposes such as preventing
erosion, improving the soil, and
weed control.
 Can be categorized by season—
winter & summer

26. Kerr Center’s
A-1 2008 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch Cannon Horticulture Plots
2009 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2010 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2011 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2012 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
Winter Season:
A-2 2008 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2009 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch What you’d find
2010 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2011 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch In the fields.
2012 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
A-3 2008 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2009 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch Fall-seeded winter cover crops
2010 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2011 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2012 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
A-4 2008 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2009 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2010 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch
2011 Rye w/peas, clover or vetch *

27. Winter
2012
Cover
Tomatoes
Crop
Winter 2013
cover Tomatoes
Crop
This is NOT what we mean by rotation!

28. Kerr Center’s
A-1 2011: Early Vegetables Cannon Horticulture Plots
2012: Summer Cover Crop
2013: Late Vegetables Crops and Cover Crops
2014: Summer Cover Crop DURING THE GROWING
SEASON
2011: Summer Cover Crop
A-2
2012: Early Vegetables
2011-2014
2013: Summer Cover Crop
2014: Late vegetables
Summer
Late
Cover
2011: Late Vegetables Vegetables
A-3 Crop
2012: Summer Cover Crop
2013: Early Vegetables
2014: Summer Cover Crop
2011: Summer Cover Crop Summer Early
A-4
2012: Late Vegetables Cover Vegetables
2013: Summer Cover Crop Crop
2014: Early vegetables

29. One in which a significant
percentage of the land is planted to
season-long cover crops each year.

30. INSECT & DISEASE CONTROL
 Clubroot, fusarium yellows,
blackleg, & black rot in cole
crops
 Black rot in pumpkins
 Northern & Western Corn
Rootworm in sweetcorn,
popcorn and decorative corn
 Root rots in beans & peas
 Gummy stem blight in
Photo: Gummy Stem Blight
cucurbits

31.  Early blight in solanaceous crops—2 years
 Black rot in cucurbits—2+ years
 Blackleg in brassicas—3-to-4 years
 Fusarium wilt in peas—4-to-5 years
 Clubroot in brassicas—7 years
 White rot on alliums—20 years

32.  Brassicas: cabbages,  Solanaceous:
broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, potatoes,
kale, brussels sprouts peppers, eggplant,
 Cucurbits: melons, tomatillo
squashes, pumpkins,  Umbels: carrots, dill,
cucumbers, gourds fennel, parsley, celery,
 Legumes: English  Composites:
peas, southern peas, sunflower, lettuce,
peanuts, beans, faba artichoke, jerusalem
beans, soybeans artichoke
 Alliums: onions, garlic,  Grasses: popcorn,
chives sweetcorn, sorghum

33. WEED CONTROL
 Changes in timing
of cultivation and
mowing
 “Cleaning crops”
 Some crop plants
are naturally more
competitive with
weeds

34. November 1, 2007

35. Bermudagrass

36. Bermudagrass
Strengths
Perennial
Summer season
 Drought tolerant
 Encouraged by mowing
Many means for
propagation and spreading
Weaknesses
 Winter tillage
 Shade

37. Cover crops grown for the purpose of out-competing and
controlling weeds.
← Crotalaria
Pearl Millet→
← Buckwheat
Southern Peas→

38. Field A-1:
Sorghum-
Sudangrass
Seth Stallings Student
Intern
2010

39. SOIL FERTILITY
 Green Manures
build/recycle
organic matter
 Legume crops &
cover crops fix
nitrogen

40.  Green manures are cover crops grown
primarily to improve the soil by adding
organic matter and nitrogen (in the case
of legumes), and making nutrients more
available
 Summer green manure crops include
annual sorghums, millets, buckwheat,
soybeans, southern peas, sesbania,
crotalaria, sweetclover

41. Nitrogen is the most
limiting crop nutrient
in most crop and
garden soils.
Legumes include: English peas,
southern peas, peanuts, beans,
faba beans, soybeans, also
clovers, sweet clovers, alfalfa,
vetch, and lespedeza.

42. #1 As a winter cover crop when you can’t grow most vegetables.
#2 As an option for a green fallow #3 In rotation with other vegetables
planting.
Peas,
Late Cowpeas Beans,
Green Sweetcorn
Vegetables edamame
fallow soybeans
Tomatoes,
Soybeans Early
Sweet peppers,
Green Vegetables potatoes eggplant
Fallow

43. Buckwheat and southern peas
are exceptionally good for
beneficial insect habitats.
Beneficials include pollinators,
predatory and parasitic insects,
predatory mites and spiders.

44. Prey upon, or
parasitize, pest
insects

45. Domestic
or wild

46.  Provides for soil fertility, especially nitrogen
 Suppresses many crop diseases
 Thwarts many insect pests
 Reduces weed pressure
 Creates a biologically healthy soil which in turn:
 Self-generates soil fertility
 Suppresses Disease
 Reduces insect pests
 Suppresses weeds

47. Good
Organic
Crop
Off-Farm Inputs
F e r t i l i z e r s — Pe s t i c i d e s
Compost, Manure
Organic Cultural Practices
A Sound Organic System
Rotations—Cover Crops
Biologically Healthy Soil

48. Good
Organic
Crop
Off-Farm Inputs
F e r t i l i z e r s — Pe s t i c i d e s
Compost, Manure
Organic Cultural Practices
A Sound Organic System
Rotations—Cover Crops
Biologically Healthy Soil

49. Summer Squash Root Crops Beans
Cucurbit beets, carrots, etc. legume
8-Year Rotation Proposed
Tomatoes
Irish Potatoes by Eliot Coleman Solanaceous
Solanaceous Described in The New Organic
Grower
English Peas
Sweet Corn Cabbage Family + winter-killed
Graminae + hardy cover crop cover crop
(grass) Brassicas Legume

50. Good
Organic
Crop
Off-Farm Inputs
F e r t i l i z e r s — Pe s t i c i d e s
Compost, Manure
Organic Cultural Practices
A Sound Organic System
Rotations—Cover Crops
Biologically Healthy Soil

51. Kerr’s 4-Year Bio-extensive Rotation
Winter cover crops
of grain rye with
winter annual
Legumes—all
plots. Typically a
Green
Vegetables warm season
Fallow smother crop of
sudangrass
Green
Vegetables
Fallow

52. Alternate BioextensiveRotation
Winter cover crops
of grain rye with
winter annual
Legumes—all
plots. Green
Vegetables
Fallow
Vegetables Vegetables
Green
Fallow

53. Alternate Green Fallow Rotation
Winter cover crops
of grain rye with
winter annual
Legumes—all
plots. Green
Vegetables
Fallow
Vegetables Vegetables
Green
Vegetables
Fallow

54. Alternate Green Fallow Rotation
Winter cover crops
of grain rye with
winter annual
Legumes—all
plots.
Green
Vegetables
Fallow
Vegetables Vegetables

55. Theoretical Relationship Between Green
Fallow and Need for Fertilizer and Pest
Control Inputs
INCREASING NEED FOR OFF-FARM INPUTS
INCREASING PERCENT OF LAND IN GREEN FALLOW

56. Sweet-
Contracted Summer Sweet- Green corn
Cabbage Squash potatoes Beans
Tomatoes &
Peppers
Southern
Contracted U-Pick Sudangrass
Peas
Canning Peas Pumpkins Green fallow
Okra

57. BFRDP Main Demo Plot 2012 (Field A2
Eight-Field Rotation
This is a single long raised bed, 10 ft X 280 ft. Plots shown are about 10 ft X 30 ft. (This
allows about 5 ft buffer between plots for turning tillers and other equip around.)
← ← ←Kerr Road → → →
Okra 1 Green Fallow Sweet potatoes 1 row Peanuts
Buckwheat
Dbl Crop:
Eng. peas Dbl Crop: Spring-planted
Proso Millet Southern Peas
Broccoli, Cabbage, Cucumber
Chinese Cabbage
White Potatoes 1 row Beans Dbl Crop:
Greens & radishes Sweetcorn 3 rows Green Fallow
Dbl Crop: Buckwheat
Caged Tomatoes 1 row
Squash Dbl Crop:
Greens & radishes 2 or 3 rows Iron & Clay
Eggplant & Peppers 1 row Dbl Crop: Beans Cowpeas
280 ft

58. Crop Rotation and Cover Cropping on the Organic Farm by Seth Kroeck.
NOFA Organic Principles and Practices Handbook Series. 95 p.
Gaining Ground by Canadian Organic Growers, Inc. 2005.
COG, 323 Chapel St., Ottawa, ON KIN 7Z2. 311 p.
Organic Crop Production Overview by G. Kuepper & L. Gegner. 2004.
http://www.attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/organiccrop.html
Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: A Planning Manual (NRAES-177)
by C. L. Mohler & S. E. Johnson. 2009. NRAES/Cornell Cooperative
Extension , Ithaca, NY. 156 p.
Cover Crops on the Intensive Market Farm by John Hendrickson. 2003.
CIAS, University of Wisconsin–Madison. 20 p.

59. Anne & Eric Nordell, Beech Grove Farm, Trout Run, PA.
Look for their column: The Bioextensive Market Garden
In The Small Farmers Journal

60. the international agrarian quarterly
Mailing address Physical address Phone numbers
PO Box 1627 192 west Barclay Drive 800-876-2893
Sisters, Oregon Sisters, Oregon 541-549-2064
97759 97759 541-549-4403 fax
agrarian@smallfarmersjournal.com
www.smallfarmersjournal.com

61. Contact Information:
George Kuepper
Kerr Center
P.O. Box 588
Poteau, OK 74953
Tel: 918-647-9123
Fax: 918-647-8712
gkuepper@kerrcenter.com