No-Till Farming in Rural Arkansas with farmer Brandon Gordon of 5 Acre Farms (FSFS106)

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For today’s show, we are going down to the State of Arkansas to talk to Brandon Lyons of 5 Acre Farms.

Brandon is someone who transitioned into farming from the nursery trade way back in 2010. Since then he’s grown his farm to 1.25 acre, and during that same time, he’s also grown his family getting married and having kids.

It’s a farming journey that started out with a single farmer who could put in crazy hours on the farm to make it work, but one that’s now changed to a husband and father farmer, who absolutely can’t put in crazy hours on farm. As a result, Brandon is now focusing on crop selection, seasonality, and processes to make the hours he does spend on the farm pay, and pay well.

One of the processes that Brandon has focuses on over the years to help save time and labor is no-till. He’s employed that strategy on his farm seeing great results both in terms of soil and reduced weed pressure. In this episode we’ll find out why he did it and how he did it, today it’s all about running a high-intensity vegetable operation in rural Arkansas with farmer Brandon Gordon.


Notes from the episode with Brandon Gordon:

  • “It’s easy to plant, but it’s a lot harder to take care of it once you plant.”
  • How he handles mulching – time in versus results.
  • Mulches long season crops like tomatoes and peppers.  When it’s time to turn that bed over he pulls the mulch into the path way and then walks on that.  And will sometimes add that material back to the bed as an amendment.
  • Meadow Creature broadfork.
  • Doing it all with labor of: him 60 hours, wife 30 hours, part time labor 60 hours
  • Keys to Carrots:
    • Uses Jang seeder, helped reduced thinning by accurate seeding.
    • Nectar Variety
    • 5 rows, 30″ bed.
    • Pre-emergent flame weeding
    • Don’t the beds dry out during germination.
    • Cover rows with row cover and use drip with overhead.
    • Hit weeds early on.
  • Likes the flail mower attachment for the BCS for taking down standing crops
  • No till has really helped build soil structure and control weeds over time.
  • Early on really watched what his customers were buying from his competitors so he could get a feel for the market.

Connect with Brandon:

@WaywardCarrot

Five Acre Farms on Facebook


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