Norm Lamothe
Peterborough County
500 acres, diverse 4 crop rotation w/cover crops, loads of soil amendments (biosolids, composts), 100 acres hay/forages, 1500 tap maple syrup production (organic), market garden, managed woodlots, commercial passive-solar greenhouse. 6th generation family farm. Coming out of 35+ years in the hog industry, over the past 10 years we have begun the transition from a 2 crop (corn/soy) rotation to more diverse crop rotation of corn/soy/oats/wheat whilst introducing cover crops and a focus on soil diversity and promotion of soil biology/activity. This started with the "tighty whities" test in one of our fields and much to our dismay, they were still "intact" after two months in the ground. I am not on a journey I cannot reverse. Unlike many, we take a more contrarian approach to how we grow our crops, we don't push CHUs, we don't plant, work or harvest when the ground isn't fit and our focus is on profit-per-acre versus yield per acre. We have extensively sampled all of our ground to get a better understanding of how we can manage our acres profitably while conducting ourselves in a ecologically sustainable and responsible manner. We have made equipment modifications including GPS guided precision equipment, auto shut-offs on our sprayer, yield monitoring (you have to be able to measure), and are now splitting nitrogen application in season in our wheat and corn (while spreading cover crops at 6-8 leaf stage). My legacy is my soil, I am 40 now, and by the time I retire, I seek to increase my soil organic matter from 3% -> 5% and to reduce my commercial fertilizer dependency to "as low as I can go".