small scale grain growing
 

I'd like to grow some of my own grain mostly for making bread. Is it difficult to grow small areas of different grains? We have 35 acres of hayfields now and I'd like to convert a small area (1-2 acres) to different grains. Is this feasible? Our land is clay based...so I guess we'd need to do some work on the soil.
I'm in Zone 4 Northern Ontario.

The problem with growing small amounts of grain is that no one makes equipment for it anymore. The cost of the various pieces of equipment make it cost-prohibitive unless you're growing a big enough plot to sell your excess.

It's entirely possible to harvest and thresh by hand, but it is a lot of work. Most people opt to buy grain, which stores easily, rather than doing all the work or buying the equipment. Corn is usually the only grain most people bother growing themselves.

Now, if you already have the equipment, or can find some used equipment for a good price, it might be feasible.

Growing is the easy part.
Harvesting and cleaning is where all the hard work comes in.

If you want different types, you may want to spread them around so they can't cross pollinate, or stagger the planting times so they won't be releasing pollen at the same time.

You might search Jackie Clay's blog at http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/JackieClay/ and search for growing grain or growing wheat. She has described doing that in the quantity you mention in your OP. Good luck! If you do it, I hope you'll share your experience with us on HT.

you folks eat alot of bread , figuring wheat runs around 50 bu an acre ( ball park figure )

we have a copy of "small scale grainraising" here, entirely possible!! buckwheat, soy/pea, wheat rotation should work well.
(if i can pry the book away from its owned you can borrow it!)

We planted a plot of wheat about 130ft. by 130ft. last fall with a hand cranked lawn seeder so that we will have our own wheat next summer. Figured i would do it all by hand, except the fitting of the ground. Have an old C.S. Bell B50 burr mill that we use to grind grain to flour. So time will tell.

Small Scale Grain Raising - Logsdon - Free E-book

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To get a free internet copy of this book from Australia go here - I did and downloaded a free copy of this out of print book.

http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyfor...ookcode=030210

Grain for just your own uses you'll need ALOT less than 1 acre. Probably a 20X20 plot would yeild all the wheat you'd need for a year. I planted about 2 acres last fall for cover crop and it came up quite nicely before winter. However I only plan on harvesting a small amount of it, most of it will get tilled under before maturity so I can plant other crops.

while it isnt made in america this stuff may help

http://www.ferrari-tractors.com/smallscale.htm

Gene Logsdon has updated his book. We have a copy, and it is very helpful. You may want to see if your library can get it for you so you can read before you buy.

Good luck, and don't forget to let us know how it works for you!

The link doesn't work:

The page cannot be found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

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Do you remember the search terms you used to find it?

You can grow oats, wheat, milo, corn, right next to each other without any cross breeding

i knew i forgot something!! one of our neighbors has a pto powered reaper for sale!! would look good behind Dans tractor even if it is a deere!! Jo and i have seen small grain mills at one of the local flea markets, will see if it is still there come spring.

thanks Ford Major - we have a Ford 8N :) and I have a little Deere :)
A small grain mill would be awesome :)

perennial rye is easy to grow and hardy up here in our zones..I haven't tried oats or winter wheat, but I understand they would grow fine too..I am putting in some grain amaranth this year to try it, never had it..and also put in some wild rice in my pond last year, 6 small starts so it will take a while to get established...barley might be another one to try??

also a vitamix will grind small amounts of grain at a time ..enough for your daily bread

Here's a link to amazon for a book that we found helpful to do what your talking about. They put info in the back of the book for seed companies that will sell small amounts of seed.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is...megrown+grains

Actually as far as grinding goes, I watched a woman on you tube make flour in a blender! Haven't tried it yet, but seems like you don't need fancy equipment to make flour.

I've gone so far as to used a spicegrinder to grind small quantities or oats and things into flour!

Here is the link to a HT thread we did on this very subject about a year ago.


http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sho...d.php?t=385401

FM They never made a pto reaper. THEY DID however, make pto grain binders.

If you desire to grow oats or barley for human consumption and you don't have a mill (none of us do) to remove the husk from either grain you are out of luck UNLESS you are smart enough to grow Hull-less Oats and Hull-less barley. They are also known as NAKED OATS. Seed is available from Southern--- Seeds in Virgina.

This is probably one of those regional things Bill, binders here the old folks called reapers and I have taken this on. To me, a binder is a piece of equipment made by International Harvester corp. I had never seen a pto powered binder till this guy bought one at auction last year.

Loonsong farm on Manitoulin Island offers classes on baking bread using home grown grains. They grow their own grain and have a small mill. They would be a good source of info for growing in your area.

Castor River Farm
 

Castor River Farm in Metcalfe (just south east of Ottawa) also grows grains for human consumption. He also sells a whisper mill for making your own flour. He is at the Ottawa and Metcalfe farmers markets every week during the summer customs grinding grain for people and he does sell farm gate as well, flour and whole grains.

http://castorriverfarm.ca/grain/

He has a fairly detailed explanation on his website about the steps that he takes to plant, harvest spray free grains.

I didn't know the other link didn't work.
Here is another link that works:

PDF

Small-Scale Grain Raising

howtohomestead.org/wheat4thepeople/Small-Scale_Grain_Raising.pdf

Well, as luck would have it, I called our library today and on their 'for sale' table is a copy of the Small Grain book you've mentioned. I'm sure it's the old one, but it's a start.

Thanks for the link to the HT discussion!
FM, I'll check out Loonsong...I'm planning to get to the Island more often this summer than I have lately :)

Binders had a knotting system that made shieves or bundles of grain. Reaper either had a person rakeing off the grain in sheve sizes, or a self rake attachment that did the same.
Ive seen binders both ways. Ours was pull type ground drive, but ive seen a few pto ones. They were much better in wet, muddy conditions.

great find RS! old books are the best, found ours at a book sale as well. we plan on getting up too the island this year, need a bus now for all the "fur kids"

You can cut grain by hand, then "flog" the seeds off the heads on a tarp, instead of using a threashing machine or combine. Winnow to clean using a window fan. I harvest my wild rice using a hand header, it has fingers like an old style sunshine header that pulls the heads....James

There is a youtube of a guy that converted a chopper/shreader into a grain thrasher. If I had a chopper/shreader, I doubt if I would convert it, but it seemed to do a great job easily.

To buy small amounts of grain, is there a problem with just buying some at the health food store and planting it? I've planted wheat I have had stored for many years and it has still grown. Will whole oats do the same thing?

Whole Oats from the feedstore will grow, however as I said, for human consumption you need to be able to remove the husk and unlike wheat the husk on oats must be milled off (think of rice here). The solution to this is to plant Naked Oats (and hull less barley) which have a husk that comes off like wheat.

How did people make oatmeal 150yrs ago?

Steel cut oats was what they used. In the Civil War era for sure (I researched this for my reenacting) oatmeal as we know it (rolled oats) did not exist yet. Don't know when it came in since for my purposes I just needed to know whether I was being a farb with my Quaker Oats for breakfast and yes, I was, not accurate. Must have been a cold, cruel world, I loves my oatmeal LOL.

they ran the oats through the stones with the stones set farther apart than normal to scuff off the hull.

Dr Kellog ran a sanitorium and devised the way to make his oatmeal.

Uhhhh, it was CORN flakes,,,,,,,,,,,,,]

geo

Here's the history of how oat processing was developed:

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Oatmeal.html

The real problem with the subject of homestead "grain into bread" is in the harvesting and threshing, not in the grinding or baking......

No one yet has come up with the way for a homesteader to harvest and thresh his grain(mostly wheat) on the appropriate scale. Smallest scale leads to the Ferrari--too costly--or the A-C pull type combine--too large and old.......

This subject is PRIME for the homestead inventor who can find the "goldilocks" way (just right) to harvest and thresh grain......

geo

I have been watching this thread with interest as a grain grower. An acre or two ofgrain by hand is doable, but hardly feasible. How are the weeds going to be controlled on two acres by hand? Planting is a minor issue, my dead grandma could plant two acres of wheat. Well, not quite! Keeping it clean of weeds so that it is feasible, and you aren't wasting your time is an issue. Then comes harvest. Cutting it by hand would take a LONG time. If this is all you have to do, Fine. But if you have other commitments at harvest time, not so great. Once mature, wheat needs to be harvested, and quickly when the weather is right. If you miss the opportunity, or get 1/3 done and the rest is still out, and it rains for a week, you end up with a bit of good grain, and a lot of crap.

This goes for most grains. Once cut by hand, then what? You must then thresh the grain out of the heads, no easy task, depending on the grain type. 2 acres is 33 feet, by half a mile. Now picture yourself cutting this down by hand. Let alone threshing it. Then you could have 100 to 180 bushels or more to store. Do you have grain bins?

Now, if you can find an ancient used combine, and yes there are pull types all over the place, go for it, but then you need to shell out cash, burn fuel, maintain, etc.

ANd finally, when you get your grain in the bin, for personal use, you need to clean it to be usable. This involves running it through screens, wind, sifters, and various other mills, to take out chaff, and the many weed seeds that are inherently preset in "organic" grains. Trust me, I know. I run a seed cleaning business on the side, and conventional farmers grain is very clean of weeds, but the "organic" stuff is VERY hard to clean, because of all the weeds. As well, the quality is often poorer, as the crop suffered with limited nutrients through its growing season. With the ODD exception.

I would personally just buy from a local farmer, and it will not only be much cheaper, but much easier, and save you time that could be used elsewhere.

If you want to, go for it, but it will be a lot of hassle. A LOT of hassle.

Dale