Applied Biodynamics — Issue 010 (Winter 1994)

Issue 010 presents biodynamics as a practice verified by procedures, economic accounting, and observable outcomes rather than assertion.

The issue opens with a strong winter framing: quotations emphasize the winter “life of the soil” and inwardness as a planning season, reinforced by the editor’s note that the newsletter is intended to serve practitioners with “hands on experience” for spring preparation. The editorial also includes a reminder about renewing the associative contract and notes an increase in handling charges due to postal rates.

An “Attention Readers” notice recommends six lecture titles by Manfred Klett, explicitly framed as a unified set of practical experience-based lectures for biodynamic agriculture. This functions as a curated reading pathway rather than instruction.

The central feature is Nick Franceschelli’s interview with Michael Wildfeuer, focused on “the animal as part of the farm organism.” The interview combines practical husbandry controls with economic realities. The philosophical premise is “letting the cow be a cow,” expressed operationally through forage-first feeding, minimal grain (rolled fresh daily), avoiding soybeans and protein supplements, retaining horns, and designing housing that supports movement, sunlight, air, and a bedded pack rather than constant confinement. A notable practical element is the use of nurse cows to satisfy calves’ suckling instinct, presented as a welfare and management control that reduces destructive behavior associated with bottle feeding. The interview also reports an attempted integrated fly-control practice—chickens following cattle to break up manure pats and consume larvae—described as biologically effective but practically constrained by predation and fencing labor.

A major non-pseudoscientific feature appears in the interview’s accounting of farm economics: a prior “high gear” production model (machinery-intensive cropping) is described as economically non-viable, while a shift toward grazing reduced expenses sufficiently that the dairy “broke even,” explicitly including living-expense figures for farm workers. Milk pricing is discussed in concrete terms (wholesale price per gallon and a retail equivalent), and the point is made that “sharing a good product” requires affordability to the farm system, not idealism alone. Soil monitoring is also treated as a measurable feedback loop: consistent soil tests every two years, tracking organic matter as a key fertility indicator, and observing organic matter decline under intensive cropping and recovery under less intensive rotation with more land in hay and grass. The role of legumes and grasses in building organic matter via root dieback is stated directly, and biodynamic compost is described as providing “dynamic” stimulus (microbial and earthworm activity) even when nutrient quantities are “negligible,” positioning compost use as a management lever distinct from nutrient feeding.

“Potting Soil: Some Recipes from Around the Country” compiles practitioner recipes gathered from prior spring interviews, and provides explicit mix ratios, component lists, and handling details. Several recipes specify bucket or gallon quantities (peat, vermiculite, perlite), minimum compost age (ranging from six months to three to four years depending on the recipe), and amendments (earthworm castings, garden soil, high-calcium lime where magnesium is high, blood meal, rock phosphate, greensand, lime). Several growers incorporate barrel compost as a wetting agent during mixing to control dust and add biological activity; one recipe includes granite quarry rock dust justified by a calcium–magnesium balance claim relative to other rock dust analyses. A commercial mix (Promix) is evaluated as a constrained substitute: approved for organic use and low in “outrageous chemical fertilizers,” but criticized for water-holding limitations and cost, with the practical directive that transplanting success declines unless plants are moved to ground quickly and watering is actively managed. Another recipe is explicitly tied to damping-off control through compost age and seasonal preparation: mixing in fall and overwintering outside is associated with reduced damping-off, while spring mixing correlated with greater damping-off risk and is countered by BD 508 and chamomile tea.

“Winter Warmth” (Betsy Cashen, R.D.) operates as a practical nutrition and cooking-method essay framed by seasonal physiology. The article links winter to “contraction” and reduced water content in hardy crops, and then moves into actionable controls: emphasize cooked foods to reduce digestive “cooking” work; prefer long, low-to-moderate heating methods (baking, roasting, simmering) to increase “warmth potential”; treat microwaving as disruptive to “ripening/warming”; use vegetable stock from scraps as a warmth-and-flavor base; and use warming broths and seasonings (including labiate herbs). Specific cautions are given against overuse of cooling foods (watery fruits/vegetables and significant citrus juice), and against hot peppers as a short-lived warming stimulus that may trigger cooling rebound.

“More on Biodynamic Composting” continues prior compost work by clarifying handling logic in a way that can be audited. A key warning is against repeatedly “diluting” compost-preparation influence across successive piles, using an analogy of lemonade increasingly losing “flavor.” Two operational rules are stated as primary: preparations should enter the pile as early in the composting process as possible, and a biodynamic compost pile does not require turning unless it was poorly made. Cost pressures are acknowledged as a reason behind “dilution” practices, with an offered alternative: begin making some preparations, and purchase compost preparations individually rather than as a full set.

“The Union Agriculture Institute: Annual Conference” (Josh Coffin) reports on a biodynamic conference held on a CSA farm, emphasizing the educational value of direct contact with gardens and animals rather than hotel-auditorium settings. The report lists topic diversity (preparations, rocks/minerals/energies, homeopathy, seed saving, whole foods, soil science, and an Agriculture Course study session). The strongest operational emphasis is on food quality as a core conference method: biodynamic meals are treated as both nourishment and confirmation of conference content, with specific descriptions of on-farm sourcing, volunteer labor intensity (late-night cleanup and pre-dawn wood stove firing), and integration of farm production into event structure.

“The Correct Use of Esoteric Knowledge—Biodynamics” (Candace Coffin) ties “esoteric” language to outcome reporting rather than abstraction by documenting a multi-year horticultural-therapy program’s public results. The Evergreen Elm Biodynamic Community Garden’s performance is presented through a year-by-year ribbon table (categories entered, total ribbons won, and blue ribbons), plus material support inputs (approximately 40 tons of community-donated leaves/grass clippings/table scraps). The article includes a narrative account of institutional resistance to chemical inputs and to contaminated organic matter, framed as a decision to “reconstitute” materials through biodynamic preparations. This piece functions as a case-report style outcome narrative: public evaluation via fair results, documented resource inputs, and management decisions described as constraints and controls.

Articles

• Attention Readers: Six Titles by Manfred Klett  
• An Interview with Michael Wildfeuer: The Animal as Part of the  Farm Organism (N. Franceschelli)  
• The Stockman Grass Farmer  
• More on Biodynamic Composting (H. Courtney)  
• The Union Agricultural Institute: Annual Conference (J. Coffin) 
• The Correct Use of Esoteric Knowledge-Biodynamics (C. Coffin) 
• Potting Soil: Some Recipes from Around the Country Winter Warmth (B. Cashen)  

Key Topics Covered

• Recommended Manfred Klett lecture titles for biodynamic practice development
• Forage-first dairy management with minimal grain and no soy or protein supplements
• Nurse-cow calf rearing as a behavioral management control
• Loafing barn design with bedded pack sunlight air exposure and untied animals
• Attempted cattle–chicken integration for fly-larvae control and documented failure mode from predation
• Economic comparison of machinery-intensive production versus grazing-based cost reduction and break-even accounting
• Two-year soil-test tracking using organic matter as a fertility indicator and rotation-driven recovery under grass and legumes
• Chicory as a deep-root mineral mobilizer integrated into forage–manure cycling
• Potting soil recipes with bucket and gallon ratios compost age requirements and barrel compost as wetting agent
• Commercial potting mix evaluation with water-holding and cost constraints
• Damping-off risk management through fall-made overwintered mixes and BD 508 and chamomile tea countermeasures
• Winter cooking-method controls emphasizing long low heat stock making and seasoning choices
• Compost-preparation handling rules emphasizing early insertion and avoiding dilution across piles
  Biodynamic compost turning rule tied to initial pile quality
  CSA-farm conference model with on-farm biodynamic meals as a methodological centerpiece
  Outcome reporting from a horticultural-therapy biodynamic garden using fair-ribbon counts and documented material inputs

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue 010, Josephine Porter Institute, 1994.