Standard Process Inc.

Wisconsin Flooding has Minimal Effect
on Standard Process Crops

August 2008 News From The Farm SP News Article

Christine Mason,
Farm Manager

If you watched the news in June, it comes as no surprise that parts of the Midwest are struggling with excessive flooding. Some very concerned customers have called the farm to check on how we are doing, so I thought that I would jot a quick article to let everyone know that we are going to be okay.

Last August, we set a record in this part of Wisconsin for rainfall in a month. Then, this winter we set records with 100 inches of snow. All of this was followed by about 13 inches of rain in the month of June. Therefore, in June we were setting precipitation records for the third time in 10 months and there was simply no place for the water to go.

Unless you were here to see it, it is hard to explain how extreme the rainfall amounts were. Let me put it this way–there used to be two large lakes in Palmyra and now there is one. When there is so much rainfall that a lake loses its banks, how in the world does a field of red beets stand a chance?

This is a very productive farm and Standard Process has gone to great lengths to ensure that we have no run-off issues (to protect streams and surface water). We have maintained our field buffers (so luckily no conventional fields drained onto our organic field). We have spent a lot of capital budget updating the drain tiles on this farm so that the water can percolate away (once there is a place open for it to flow).

We lost about half of what was planted, but this farm is very unique in that we have to successively plant all summer in order to take product to the main plant every single day. A typical farmer would plant his buckwheat one weekend, for example, and that would be it. We plant buckwheat every other day for almost two months straight. Luckily, this means that much of what was flooded was still fallow.

We are also fortunate at the Standard Process Farm that every field has some dry areas. The farms that touch this farm for about 5,000 acres straight are under many feet of water. To tour the farm today, you would honestly think that we border a lake. We have neighbors that are far worse off than we are.

Another blessing in this rainfall disaster is that vegetables have a shorter growing season than row crops. It is far too late to replant field corn, for example, but a red beet will grow just fine. We have to readjust production schedules on a daily basis, but there will be crops to harvest.

There are some very dedicated men working at the Standard Process Farm, and I am happy to report that, as of today, we are back on schedule and, with a little luck, we should be able to make all of our harvest goals. Thank you for the concern and thank you for asking!