By Meg Darnell
Meg Darnell is a Farmer Companies Coordinator at Georgia Organics
On Monday, July 1, 2024, 34 native farmers and 15 farm workers, researchers, and extension brokers arrived at Oxford School Farm of Emory in Oxford, GA to take part in an Natural Growers Farmer Subject Day exploring soil well being and natural pesticide preparation and software. The day featured a farm tour, three in-depth academic periods, and ample alternatives for networking. This recap offers an in depth abstract of the day’s actions, highlighting the technical insights shared by consultants and the precious information gained by attendees.
Morning Overview: Farm Tour and Welcome
The sector day started with an attractive tour of Oxford School Farm, led by Daniel Parson and his devoted farm crew. Daniel’s intensive expertise in Licensed Natural farming was complemented by the hands-on insights of his workforce. Members noticed the farm’s vibrant ecosystem, noting the way it was teeming with life—a testomony to the farm’s dedication to sustainable and biodiverse practices.
We explored a formidable 11 acres of diversified agricultural manufacturing. The farm employs a considerate strategy to crop administration and sustainability. Oxford School Farm makes use of a meticulous crop rotation system by dividing their land into quarter-acre blocks. This technique permits them to alternate between money crops and canopy crops successfully, selling soil well being and productiveness. Notably, they incorporate cowl crops even of their excessive tunnel, which is used for year-round manufacturing.
Along with their rotation blocks, the farm options devoted areas for varied fruit bushes, together with figs, blueberries, persimmons, and pears. These areas are managed individually from the rotation blocks. The farm additionally helps useful insect populations by sustaining flowering crops all through the fields. This technique helps management pests throughout their larvae stage, decreasing the necessity for chemical interventions.
A novel facet of the farm is their intermittent wetland, which has been developed to assist native crops. This space features a various vary of species equivalent to azaleas, bee balm, and St. John’s Wort, contributing to the farm’s ecological stability and biodiversity.
The farm employs 4 full-time workers members who handle day-to-day operations. Moreover, Oxford School college students contribute just a few hours of volunteer work every week through the educational yr, offering helpful assist to the farm’s actions.
The tour supplied a complete overview of the farm’s operations, together with soil administration, cowl cropping methods, and crop rotation. The wealthy biodiversity noticed on the farm underscored these practices’ effectiveness in making a thriving agricultural setting.
