UC Cooperative Extension advisor researches biodynamic grape production

July 9, 2007
 
CONTACT: Jeannette Warnert, (559) 241-7514, jwarnert@ucop.edu

Biodynamic farming involves some curious practices. Fill a cow's horn with manure, bury it on the fall equinox; months later carefully blend the manure with water and spray it on the soil. At the spring equinox, bury ground quartz for later blending with water and crop application.
 
"Some people scoff or roll their eyes," said UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Glenn McGourty. "I am interested in looking objectively at what a group of dedicated farmers take very, very seriously. More importantly, they are getting some very good results in their winegrapes and wines."
 
Biodynamic farming is similar to organic production. As on organic farms, no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers are used. The farm is viewed as its own ecosystem and typically supports a diverse mix of crops and livestock, which are considered complimentary. Biodynamic farmers use unique preparations and compost. Planting, cultural operations and harvesting are guided by celestial events.
 
Respecting even the unconventional practices adhered to by biodynamic farmers, McGourty is studying carbon cycling in an acre and a half cabernet sauvignon vineyard at the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center south of Ukiah.
 
Carbon cycling on the farm is getting increased attention because of concerns about global warming, which scientists believe is partly caused by carbon released into the planet's upper atmosphere. Carbon flows into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned and also when organic matter is digested by animals and microorganisms. The breakdown of soil carbon speeds up under more intense crop management systems that require extensive tillage.
 
"Biodynamic farmers recycle almost all of their agricultural waste products," McGourty said. "When you cycle carbon into your own farm, you recycle the vegetative waste, animal manure, and use crop rotation to break pest and disease cycles. You grow cover crops to enhance carbon fixation in the soil. You conserve energy by not hauling what some consider waste materials away from the farm. In turn, crop and animal residues provide nutrition for your crops."
 
Enhancing the carbon cycle on the farm, McGourty said, is an environmental service that agriculture can provide by parking carbon in the soil, rather than allowing it to drift into earth's upper atmosphere.
 
The carbon cycling trial isn't McGourty's first foray into biodynamic research. Working with scientists from Washington State University and farmers in Mendocino County, McGourty undertook a carefully designed research study comparing organic grape production with biodynamic production at the Fetzer Bonterra McNab Ranch near Ukiah. The vines were planted in 1996 and data were collected from 2000 to 2004. A randomized block design and three replications of two treatments covered 12 acres of a commercial Merlot vineyard.
 
The data revealed small increases in the amount of sugar and healthful fruit pigments called anthocyanins in the grapes produced using the biodynamic systems. For example, in 2003, the final year data were collected, the brix (weight of sugar per volume of solution) in biodynamic grapes was 25.88 percent, and in organic grapes it was 25.55 percent. The total anthocyanins in biodynamic grapes was 1,337 parts per million, compared to 1,272 ppm for the organic grapes. In addition, the scientists noted that the biodynamic grape vines were more "balanced."
 
"One of the things you try to create is balance in the grape vine, the balance of the amount of fruit to the amount of shoots," McGourty said. "Balance matters. If you over crop your vine, the fruit doesn't have the intensity you want for red wine. If there is too much foliage, the fruit takes on a green bean, asparagus or bell pepper flavor. That's not good."
 
The research report -- authored by McGourty, Washington State scientists Jennifer Reeve, Carpenter-Boggs and John Reginold, plus other collaborators -- was published in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, but the study wasn't warmly received by all farmers and scientists. Many question the lack of scientific explanation and the "faith-based" nature of biodynamic practices.
 
"Ironically, I've also been castigated at local public meetings that UC is screening herbicides for chemical companies. Not everyone believes the modern agro-chemistry is the only professional way to farm," McGourty said. "We've got 3,000 acres of certified organic vineyards and 1,500 acres of biodynamic farms in Mendocino County. I'm committed to helping all of my clientele. I want them all to be successful at what they do."
 
According to the 1989 book "The Biodynamic Farm: Agriculture in the Service of the Earth and Humanity" by Herbert H. Koepf, biodynamic farming was the first clearly defined alternative farming movement in the 20th century. The originator was Rudolph Steiner, born in 1861 in Bohemia, modern day Croatia.
 
In 1924, Steiner presented eight lectures to a group of farmers in Silesia (now Poland) who were concerned about the decline in the health and quality of their farms, livestock and crops. The lectures form the basis of the biodynamic approach to agriculture still in use today. According to the Koepf book, Steiner reasoned that since plant growth is dependent on the sun, earth, air and water, the entire universe affects the process of life. He believed in creating a healthy environment for crops, farm families and the communities where they live, while ensuring an economically viable agricultural business.
 
In his lectures, Steiner mapped out farming operations not only by the solar calendar -- recognizing seasons and day and night -- but also the celestial calendar. He described "preparations" in his eight lectures, believed to influence life processes in plants, compost and soils. The preparations are perhaps the most controversial of Steiner's ideas today since they are to be applied at just trace levels, quantities so small conventional wisdom suggests they should have no affect on the crop or soil at all.
 
"Some people are very attracted to those ideas," said Stephen Kaffka, UC Cooperative Extension agronomy specialist at UC Davis. "They find them meaningful and helpful in their lives. That's great for them."
 
Kaffka's early agricultural training put him two degrees of separation from Steiner himself. A well-known Steiner protégé was Alan Chadwick. In the late 1960s, Chadwick created the student farm at UC Santa Cruz. Kaffka, at the time a philosophy major at the university, served as Chadwick's assistant and later succeeded him as the director of the farm.
 
The success of the UC Santa Cruz farm eventually led to the establishment of the famed UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, a research, education and public service program.
 
Kaffka went on to further his education at Cornell University and took a year to develop a master's thesis by evaluating 30 years of data for a 300-acre biodynamic farm in Germany.
 
"Organic and biodynamic farmers are dedicated to farming in ways that they believe enhance nature. Their efforts and the farms that result contribute to our overall understanding of how to produce crops and livestock and to the larger discussion of the meaning of agricultural sustainability," Kaffka said. "That doesn't mean we suspend our analytical judgment when reviewing data and it doesn't mean we try to advance biodynamic agriculture by pretending there are differences when there are none."
 
McGourty said he also takes a neutral perspective.
 
"I'm not out to promote biodynamic farming," he said. "I'm evaluating this farming system, and I am interested in lessons for all of agriculture that we can implement. Many biodynamic farms are quite profitable, and past research has shown that soil quality, crop quality and energy efficiencies are quite high."