Last fall Lorraine went on a road trip with our good friend Annie the pig farmer. They attended a biodynamic meeting in Covelo. Lorraine came home with the idea of planting wheat and clover at the same time in the fall. The wheat grows and is harvested in June. We then irrigate the stubble and the clover bursts into life to provide a cover crop for the chickens to eat. Well the results are in. It works but only if the wheat is irrigated later in the spring. Here is what I observe..... The clover/wheat which was next to a cover crop and had water applied throughout the spring has a wonderful clover crop after the wheat. Unfortunately the wheat grew so tall we could not irrigate it with our sprinklers. The heirloom wheats are tall unlike the mutant modern varieties. We do not use wasteful flood irrigation which also could have caused the wheat to fall over if it was windy in the spring.
We love to grow heirloom wheat and we will continue to find ways to fit it into the farm rotations.