What are good crops for organic farmers in Montana or other northern states?

Question

For a class, I have to design an economy for a utopian society. I'm locating them in Montana or out and up West somewhere, so I want to know what grows best without that much external force. Thanks for your help, all.

Answer 1

You've got some good answers here, but any thing that they are growing in the area with conventional agriculture will do well if you grow it organically. The big difference will more than likely will be the size of the area that you can farm. With organic you will be growing a smaller area because it is labor intensive, so you need to grow crops that will return more per acre like vegetables and fruits. Also free range chickens should fit in well and not require a lot more labor for meat and eggs.

Answer 2

Potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, oats, rye, barley and cabbage family

Answer 3

I live in western Montana and have a small organic fruit orchard.  Apples, cherries, and pears are relatively easy to grow organically especially on a smaller scale.  I manage about 50 trees with not too much effort.

Good job in picking Montana!  Its the last best place!

Answer 4

Pastured/grass fed beef and dairy cattle

quinoa, wheat, triticale, amaranth, potatoes, anything that can thrive in an arid environment.

You could include some greenhouse growing using geothermal. I have seen several greenhouse operations in SW Montana that used hot springs to heat their houses and greenhouses so they could grow a far greater variety of crops including things that love heat like melons, tomatoes, bell peppers etc..

Answer 5

Montana is to arid to grow many crops without irrigation.  Historically, wheat has done well and in theory other small cereal grains would do nearly as well.

Answer 6

I live in Idaho, fairly close to Yellowstone.  My husband and I live on a small permaculture farm.  We are in the high mountain desert area at 4700+ feet elivation.

Our main "external force" is to bring in salt & mineral blocks for the livestock.

We mainly raise meat goats (big market for them with the local University).

We grow our own alfalfa & rapeseed (canola).  The alfalfa is fed to the goats, horses, and meat rabbits.

The rapeseed is squeezed for the oil, and we make our own biofuel to run our trucks and tractors.  The squeezings from the rapeseed are fed to the goats (very good for them).

The rabbits have worm bins under their hutches.  The worms live in the rabbit manure and any food they drop, which can be quiet a bit, since we feed them alfalfa hay.

The rabbits provide meat for us, as well as customers.  The goats are the main sale animal (right now).  We also eat them ourselves.

I have several does (female goats) I milk and can make butter, cheese, and  yogurt with the milk (ice cream too if I wanted).

We use zero pesticides, fungicides, or chemical fertilizers.  Crops grow with good old fashioned manure, left over animal bedding, and dropped animal feed.

We provide habitat for, and encourage certain native wildlife.  Burrowing owls (endangered) for example will hunt your fields at night and be on cricket, grasshopper and insect patrol for you at night.  Some of the smaller falcons do the same during the day, as well as other birds.

Gartersnakes, and an endangered salamander (yes in the desert) also do great insect control.

The worm castings and rabbit manure are used to fertilize our garden, and around our fruit trees.  

Chickens are gone at the moment but when we have them, they provide outstanding insect control, scratching up manure, and eating fly larva before it hatches, as well as providing us with eggs, and meat.

We have Great Pyrenees to guard our farm/goats from coyotes, red foxes, and the rare desert foxes.  It's great, because they just keep the predators away, so I loose no livestock to predators, nor do I have to kill any predators.  The Great Pyrenees are on a semi raw diet.  They get rabbits, and sometimes chickens and chicken eggs.  This greatly reduces the amount of kibble I need to buy for them.  I could, if I needed to, feed them entirely with items we raise on the farm, with zero store bought kibble.

We butcher, can, dehydrate, freeze, pickle, and otherwise preserve much of our own food.  I cook from scratch, right down to grinding our wheat, and butchering our own animals.

Eventually we will expand our farm/land.  At that point, we will grow wheat, since we want the straw (just a bonus that we get to sell the grain).  We will build our own straw bale house, barns, and shop.  They will be powered totally off grid, via wind, solar, and a Central Boiler (brand name).

At that point we will also raise cattle for beef.  Probably West Highlands, since they will do well in our brutal winters.  I like that fact that they grow fur, not fat.  Horses, goats, and cattle will be intesively grazed.  That means small pastures, and rotated through them VERY frequently (every day or two).  This gets the maximum grass production (tonage and quality) from your pasture land.  It also mimics natural grazing patterns of wild herds....graze intensively for a short period in a small area, then move on, leaving behind rich manure.  

This naturally keeps worm loads in the animals down, and encourages your grass to produce rich soil, and strong root systems.

We will also be introducing pigs at that time.  Probably a heritage breed, known as Large Blacks.  They will do well under our hot summer sun and not sunburn.  They also do very well being raised on pasture situations (no confinment animal raising, except kind of the rabbits).  They can also be used to rotate in garden spots.  As hogs churn up the ground with their natural rooting abilities, they will bring lava rocks to the surface for us.  They also churn up any insect eggs, eat them or expose them to the drying sun.  

This keeps harmful insects from becoming established in garden areas, and pastures.

Your utopian society can be balanced much as our farm is.  As you can see...we produce, actually we are quiet productive, but we have very little imput, or external force from the outside world.  

Salt and minerals are the main thing we need for our livestock.  Other than that we are able to balance the farm fairly well.  

Something else you may wish to know for your utopian society...and it's all about manure.

Animals that produce "round p**p" have what is known as "cold" manure.  It can be spread dirrectly on the garden, flower beds, and crops, with no chance of burning the plants because of the manure.  

Round p**p animals are VERY good at using water (water thrifty) and getting the nuetriants from their food.  Round p**p animals are rabbits, goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, donkeys, and camels.  Deer, elk, moose and such for the wild animals.

Horses are a borderline round p**p animal.  Really it's better to compost their p**p.

Animals like cows, chickens, geese, ducks, and pigs produce manure that is NOT shaped like marbles.  Their manure it "hot" manure and will burn plants if put directly on them.  It must be composted for one-two years before it is safe to spread onto a garden or crop area..

Alfalfa hay grows very well around here (in the West).  Alfafa is a nitorgen fixer...it put nitrogen into the soil.  Most plants, especially corn, strip nitrogen out of the soil.   Most crops are planted yearly.  Alfalfa can be planted, and then harvested 3-4 times a year for 5-7 years.

Hope all this information helps you out.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years