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*Articles on Organic & Sustainable Farming* *(June 42, 2010) * *Organic has Challenges and Benefits for Soil, *NRCS-Michigan spring newsletter** In this article you will learn from several farmers about different challenges and benefits organic farming have on soil. Here are some tips you will find in the article. Cultivating is the main means of weed control for organic producers says Dan Rossman, MSU Extension director for Gratiot County. Organic Farmer Rodney Kiger believes improving soil biology offsets any detrimental effects of increased tillage. Without the use of pesticides natural predators help take care of insect pests. He also believes cover crops are an important practice for organic producers. Farmer Tom Nelson uses different cropping systems for organic including fall chisel plowing, and moldboard plowing on fields when he plants peas in the spring. Both farmers apply manure in their fields. Reducing costs by cutting out the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizer and the higher prices they receive for organic crops convinced Kiger and Nelson to transition to organic production. To read the entire article the NRCS-Michigan spring newsletter online at * ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/MI/news/Current%20Developments/Spring_2010.pdf * * **Short-cycle summer cover crops – Identifying approaches to manage weeds*, by Vicki Morrone, Michigan State University, Dept of CARRS, East Lansing, MI When discussing the challenges of farming with organic farmers, whether they are farmers with extensive farming experience or fairly new organic vegetable farmers, the greatest challenge they mention is effectively managing weeds. One option for an organic farmer to manage weeds is to be diligent and timely and lightly cultivate the soil on a near-constant basis to remove young weeds, to create a “nice clean field.” Although this approach is not very environmentally friendly, many organic farmers feel this is the only reliable approach. This clean (bare) field opens up the gate to soil erosion, exasperated by heavy rainfall, not uncommon during the summer storms along the Great Lakes. There is no guarantee how effective cover crops will be. Reducing weeds, loosing compacted soil, or building soil are all worthy goals, but the right choice of cover crop and effective management is needed if the window between market crops is to be used successfully for cover crops. To address the question “which short-cycle summer cover crops are effective to reduce weeds and increase soil health on organic farms?”, Cornell University, Michigan State University, and University of Illinois received three years of support from the USDA Organic Research and Extension Grant program to research best summer cover crop options for organic vegetable farmers in the Great Lakes. The team is headed up by Dr. Thomas Bjorkman from Cornell University, Dr. John Masiunas from University of Illinois and Dr. Dan Brainard from Michigan State University. To read the entire article including the research plan visit * www.michiganorganic.msu.edu* main page. If you would like to access previous postings to the Mich-Organic listserv you can copy and paste the following URL into your browser address bar http://list.msu.edu/archives/mich-organic.html