Farm efficiency is how much work gets done in a set amount of time. That's why, on any size farm, finding ways to work more efficiently makes a huge difference. Small changes in how we move, handle things, and plan and coordinate tasks can save health, labor and money, all of which add up over time , maybe the most valuable thing we have.
Sometimes we learn from those who came before, sometimes by doing, and sometimes the hard way. If you'd rather learn from others' experience, the Hensley's team gathered efficiency ideas from three growers we admire.
- A Maine grower, owner of a diversified vegetable farm in central Maine and co-publisher of a market farming magazine .
- A Québec grower, owner of a small, intensive market garden in southern Québecand author of a popular market gardening book.
- A New York grower, co-owner of a family vegetable farm in upstate New York and host of a farming podcast.
- Carry a watch, a knife and a marker.
- Color-code and label everything; it saves a lot of time and breath.
- Get a golf cart to get around the farm cheaply and quickly.
- Use an app to sort tasks. You can take notes in the field, store them online and share them with anyone, anywhere.
- Train the crew on every tool, even something as simple as a hoe.
- Remember: fast isn't always the same as efficient.
She credits many of her time savers to great farmers she has worked with, but her farm has some of its own tricks too.
Even her toddler has picked up the farm's mantra of maximizing efficiency, which shows how deeply it runs through the operation.
She and her husband have adopted many rules of thumb that save time, labor and materials, and therefore money. A common thread is economy of motion: cutting out anything unnecessary, such as extra trips, extra hand movements and anything that causes repetitive strain.
During an apprenticeship on a California farm, she remembers being told the farm didn't pay people to walk, so the crew rode tool-laden bikes around the farm all summer. A bit quirky, but it makes the point.
She thinks of tasks with a series of steps and movements as dances. Before starting, gather everything you need, including tools, plans and people, then begin. Focus on the motions until you find a rhythm, and muscle memory carries the job through.
Potting up into 4" pots takes four motions. In the field, the crew plants three seedlings with each step. Pruning and trellising in the hoophouses has its own rhythm, and so do washing greens and moving fence.
Give it a try. Set yourself up well, then use smooth, comfortable, practiced movements, and the rhythm of the farm will carry you toward greater efficiency.
More about the Maine farm…
This grower has many ideas, but one that nearly any beginner will benefit from is the flame weeder.
If you're still on your knees hand-weeding carrots, this time-saving tool is worth a look.
Weeding carrot beds is one of market gardening's most dreaded jobs, as anyone who has interned on a small organic farm knows. Carrots are among the "dirtiest" crops because they don't transplant well and are very slow to sprout. Flame weeding can turn those traits into an advantage against weeds.
Flame weeding kills weeds with a torch. "Burning" is a bit of a misnomer, since weeds aren't charred but heat-shocked, which damages their cells.
Flame weeding works when two things are true: the flame actually touches the soil, and the weeds are small enough to die from about a second of flame (between the cotyledon and first-true-leaf stages). A very smooth seedbed is best, since bumps in the soil can deflect heat and shield some weed seedlings.
Flame weeding pairs well with the stale seedbed method: prepare the bed a few weeks before sowing and let weed seeds in the top 2" (5 cm) sprout. When you're ready to plant, by seeding or transplanting, flame the bed first to kill the emerging weeds and skip at least one flush of weeds.
Many growers make stale seedbeds but kill the weeds with shallow tillage instead of flame. The difference between using, say, a harrow and a flame weeder is that flaming doesn't disturb the soil, so buried weed seeds aren't brought up where they can sprout.
That matters a lot in densely sown crops such as mesclun, where rows are too close to weed between.
Flame-weeding in preemergence weed control
As noted, a flame weeder is especially handy for carrots. The method here is to prepare carrot beds 10–15 days ahead, but instead of sowing after killing the weeds, sow partway through, about 5–7 days after preparing the stale bed.
Carrots usually take 8–12 days to sprout, so weeds get almost 20 days to appear before the first carrot emerges. Just before the carrots break through, flame the bed, and the crop comes up into a nearly weed-free bed.
Pre-emergence flaming is the ultimate weed control for slow-sprouting crops such as carrots, beets and parsnips. It does require care: wait too long and once the crop is up, weeds will overrun it.
Then you're facing hours of hand weeding or maybe reseeding and losing a few weeks. To avoid missing the window, sow a pinch of a faster-sprouting "indicator" crop at the head of the bed. Radish seedlings signal that beets are about to come up, and beet tips signal that carrots are close.
When the indicator crop appears, you know exactly when to flame. It also helps to note on your crop calendar a reminder to check beds 5 days after direct seeding. Flaming too early beats flaming too late.
More about the Québec market garden…
The longer this grower farms, the more there is to learn, and the shorter the days seem, so making sure the farm runs smoothly and the crew works effectively is a priority.
Everyone wants efficiency, but effectiveness goes a step further. What's the difference? Efficiency is picking spinach at X pounds an hour. Effectiveness is realizing you can hire someone to pick spinach and spending your time on what only you can do, such as making three new sales calls or scouting onions for thrips.
Planning time is another key. The farm tries to walk every field, tunnel and cooler at the start of each week and make a master list of tasks and projects, plus all the planting and tillage needed, then spread the work across the week with an eye on the weather. Lists save you every time. They also spend 15 minutes at the start and end of each day planning and reviewing, which makes it easier to move the crew from task to task and keeps equipment flowing around the farm.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are essential for an effective farm. An SOP is a document that trains staff on routine tasks. While writing them, the farm talks with other growers and refines methods so each process is safe, effective and easy to follow. They have SOPs for laying row cover, loading trucks and setting up markets, washing eggs, planting lettuce and more, which helps new staff get up to speed fast and gives a standard to check against when something isn't done right. Next up is turning many of them into videos. Learn more about improving farm efficiency with SOPs…
There are always small daily improvements that make a farm more efficient. A few examples:
- Turning frost-free hydrants into 4-way manifolds with full-flow connectors gives a dedicated spigot for every use. Automatic irrigation timers and quick-connects are must-haves too.
- Giving every harvester a pouch (for rubber bands, twist ties and bandages), a 6" harvest knife with sheath, and a radio or phone means you can reach them and they never have to go back for supplies.
- Borrowing an idea from another New York farm , the whole farm is divided into blocks 8 beds wide with 12'-wide grass drive lanes between them. However long the beds are (here up to a few hundred feet), you're never more than 4 beds from a harvest vehicle, and vehicles and the irrigation gun stay cleaner.
- Another big money and time saver was investing in reusable harvest totes. They can be used hundreds of times and, compared with waxed boxes, pay for themselves quickly.
Add standardized harvest containers and bin counts, tray poppers for transplants, and shared online planning documents, and profit margins have climbed over the years. It's not how much you gross but how much you take home that counts. Focusing on effectiveness as well as efficiency makes farming more fun and less stressful and makes a complex operation easier to run.
More about the New York farm…
