Blog: Growing Grain
Equipment for Planting Corn and Cereals
A seed drill is the best, but you can get started without one.
Can Small Farmers Really Grow Grain?
Yes, it is tricky, but with the right farm system, equipment, and markets, people do it.
Choosing the Best Grain Buyers for Your business
Working in the direct market with small grain presents a variety of opportunities to structure your business in a way that works for you.
What is the direct market for grain, anyway?
The vast majority of grain in the US is sold on the commodity market–this is not what we are talking about here.
Fusarium head blight
Damp weather at flowering time makes this an important disease to manage in the Mid-Atlantic.
Planning Crop Rotations
Choosing which cover crops to plant can be baffling, but don’t let that stop you from just planting something–it will be better than nothing.
Factors that Impact Germination Rates
The good news is, you have some control over most of them.
Post-Harvest Cleaning of Food-grade grain - Part 1
We’ll start by looking at all the things that can end up in your harvest other than what you want.
Baking Whole Grain Bread with Low Gluten Flour
Mid-Atlantic grain tends to have lower protein content, but you can still make a great loaf of bread.
Wheat Growth Stages
They seem overly complicated, but many management decisions depend on the growth stage of your crop.
Acres in a Loaf of Bread
Growing this grain chain of ours means understanding how many buyers we need to support our growers. Hint–it’s more than you probably think.
When carbon meets nitrogen
We all know that crops need nitrogen to do photosynthesis–their role in the carbon cycle–but what about the influence of soil carbon on making nitrogen available to plants?
One difference between polenta and grits
Or, a beautiful connection between growing conditions and cuisine.
Steps to Harvesting Grain
The names of the steps persist in our everyday language as metaphors, even as the combine has made the processes themselves obsolete–almost.
What is “modern” wheat?
“Modern” wheat has a bad reputation, but some modern breeding programs have changed their focus to help sustainable small- and mid-size farmers.
Organic N for wheat: when, and how much?
Translating conventional fertilizer recommendations into more sustainable systems opens a Pandora’s box of factors, but we can still come up with a reasonable place to start.
Preparing Ground For Field Crops – Part 2
A firm, smooth seedbed is key to good cereal germination.
Preparing Ground For Field Crops – Part 1
“Tactical tillage” may actually be the most sustainable option on the small- to mid-size scale.