Goals of a successful crop rotation include:

Adequate cash flow and overall farm profitablity. Spread your major cash crops over your rotations to ensure cash flow at different times of the year from different crops. Consider the value of crops with multiple marketing outcomes such as alfalfa which can be sold as hay, fed as haylage or harvested for seed.

Sustainable on-farm fertility from a crop sequence that balances soil-improving crops (perennial forages, annual green manures) with soil-depleting crops (most cash crops). Successful rotations can improve fertility over time.

Cover crops that provide multiple benefits. Scheduling cover crops into the rotation wherever possible can protect the soil from erosion, supplement nitrogen fixation with legumes, build organic matter, smother weeds, suppress soil pests and diseases and manage nutrients.

Sustainable pest management. Crops sequenced in a diverse rotation that helps break the cycles of insect pests, diseases and weeds.

Crop rotation based on available resources

Crop rotations vary widely according to region and farm type. You need to develop a rotation based on available resources, including soil, equipment, labor, market opportunities and storage capacity. Good organic crop rotations include both cash crops and cover crops. If you've got plenty of land, you can include long periods of hay or pasture to break weed cycles and build fertility. If you're pressed for space, you may need to rely more heavily on composts or other soil amendments to supply fertility.  

Generally speaking, your certifier will expect to see a rotation sequence of three to five crops suitable to your part of the country. You will need to outline your basic rotation sequence (or sequences) when you fill out your Organic System Plan. The best cropping plans are flexible so you can respond to changing conditions. The plans can be different for various fields.
  
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 White clover frost-seeded (broadcast during the freeze-thaw cycle of late winter) into wheat, shown as the wheat ripens in early summer. (Photo: TRI)