by Linda McCandless
Note: Information about buckwheat hulls is available.
Geneva, NY - Fifty buckwheat growers from the far reaches of New York, Pennsylvania and Ontario assembled at the Vegetable Research Farm at Cornell University's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, on Tuesday, Aug. 27, for the second annual buckwheat field day.
Growers were excited to observe substantially improved buckwheat lines produced by a joint Cornell-Canadian research project under the leadership of Thomas Björkman, associate professor of vegetable crop physiology at the Geneva Station. In these trials, several new breeding lines outperformed Manor, which is the dominant variety planted throughout the Northeast.
"Manor was bred in Manitoba, Canada, and not selected for performance in New York and the Northeast," said Björkman, who has been studying buckwheat for six years. "We want to develop something that is broadly adapted to New York and our climate."
The breeding work is a cooperative project with Birkett Mills of Penn Yan, and Kade Research in Manitoba, and is the first breeding work being done in decades to focus on Northeast growing conditions.
"We are trying to develop a variety that consistently yields close to its potential," said Björkman. "Buckwheat plants grow in much the same way as beans and the crop has similar production problems. That similarity has helped make a vegetable research program a very productive place to do buckwheat research."
At the meeting, there was also a spirited discussion of grower needs, ranging from better varieties, easier trucking and, of course, higher prices.
Another purpose of the meeting was to establish a grower organization similar to those that exist for other commodities. The association will allow buckwheat growers to share growing techniques and articulate their concerns with processors, extension, and the land grant universities in New York and Pennsylvania. Lee Johnson of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Yates County is facilitating this association and can be reached at 315-536-5123.
Buckwheat, which is usually planted in July, is a low-input crop that grows well on land that is wet or unprofitable for corn, soybeans, or wheat. Although it needs to be planted in well-prepared ground, buckwheat does not require fertilizers, pesticides, or tilling. As an added incentive, buckwheat deters weeds, dramatically improves the texture of the surface soil, and makes more phosphorus available for later crops.
Buckwheat demand fell off in the 1950's. However, the market for buckwheat has recently increased and demand for the crop is seldom met. The driving force for the market increase is large imports by Japanese noodle-makers who import 100,000 metric tons of buckwheat to make soba noodles, a traditional Japanese food. Previously, the Japanese bought the bulk of their North American buckwheat from farmers in Manitoba. But new Canadian subsidy laws that went into effect several years ago make it much more profitable for Canadian farmers to grow other crops.
Birkett Mills, in Penn Yan, has been milling buckwheat since 1787, and would like to see more New York farmers grow buckwheat. "Currently, about 60 percent of the buckwheat we purchase comes from out of state," says vice-president Cliff Orr. "U.S. farmers underestimate the Japanese demand. If Birkett could get enough buckwheat, we would sell to Japan."
In central New York, where buckwheat is usually grown on contract to Birkett Mills, AgriCulver in Trumansburg, or New Hope Mills in Moravia, 20 to 30 bushels to the acre is considered a good yield and the price is about $12/hundredweight, or around $6/bushel.
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