"We grow a diversity of vegetables that we sell to area markets. We rotate our vegetable plots every year and have the goal to convert every ounce of acreage to organic pasture or production. Currently, we are renting a small portion of our 20 acres to a conventional farmer but plan to reclaim this as soon as we can afford to plant pasture. We also have plans for pasturing meat chickens."



The McDonald Farm is a vegetable production operation serving two Chicago markets and a small CSA.

Production approach: Natural (chemical-free)
Rotations: Vegetables with cover crops
Cover crops: Alfalfa, clover, rye, peas, oats, vetch.
IPM used: None
Tillage: Rotovator
Soil amendment program: Manure, lime, compost, fish emulsion
Soil tests: Click HERE.

Field was visited 5/6/09. Soils were were in good condition at the time of visit. One patch of Canada thistle was observed on the farm. Thistles were 3-4-inches tall. Todd tilled the patch during my visit (see pic below). Todd will use this area for the project, and follow the recommendations for non-chemical control of Canada thistles:

1. Till multiple times. Rotovator will be used 2-3x.

2. Plant sudan grass. Seed will be located and sudan grass will be planted in early June at a recommended rate of 55 lbs/acres in area tilled.

3. Mow sudan at 4-6'. Sudan grass will be mowed just as thistles are starting to flower. Sudan should be at least 4' tall.

4. Sudan will be mowed again. A second mowing will prevent any thistle from flowering and help build up a thick layer of biomass to smother thistle.

5. Sudan will be tilled under in Fall or following Spring.

Thistle was roto-tilled on May 5 (pictured above), wheel plowed about a month later, then roto-tilled again in late July. Sudangrass was planted late -- July 25. On August 20, the day of the 2nd visit, sudangrass was 10-12" tall, much shorter than at locations where sudan was planted earlier. Consequently, thistle was coming back stronger. Todd will let the sudangrass grow mow it all down again before the thistle flowers.

Brix measuremant was taken on the growing sudangrass. Reading was 4.0.