One of the unique advantages that small-scale farmers enjoy is a great deal of flexibility in their choice of crops. Growing for home consumption, winter livestock feed, or even a small local customer base offers unique opportunities to experiment with less traditional grains and legumes. In turn, these uncommon crops often fit nicely into low-input niches and challenging environments.

The key to choosing low-input crops is to match the crop to the environment. Any crop that is not suited to the climate and soils in which it is expected to grow will become high-maintenance, no matter how well it performs in other locations.

Rye

Although rye is a close relative of wheat, it is far more forgiving. It can grow even on depleted, rough, or acidic soils. While it thrives on lighter soils, it can tolerate everything from sand to heavy clay, waterlogged to dry. At harvest time, it threshes just as easily as wheat.

Winter rye in particular has many advantages, the foremost being its ability to outcompete weeds. It germinates rapidly, even at soil temperatures as low as 33° F (although it performs better in the 55° to 65° F range), outpacing fall weed growth. As soon as freezing weather sets in, the weeds die back while the rye merely goes dormant, surviving temperatures as low as -40° F, giving it a head start in spring. In addition, winter rye produces chemical compounds that stunt the growth of weedy rivals. The result? A winter rye field can be virtually free of weed woes, even if you take a largely hands-off approach to weed management. Rye is believed to be particularly effective in battling ragweed, marestail, horseweed, lambsquarters, and velvetleaf, among others.

And while winter rye is busy beating the weeds all winter long, it is providing numerous soil health benefits, as well. It is an excellent winter soil cover for preventing erosion, it absorbs nitrogen and thus stops leaching during the cold months, and its extensive roots alleviate soil compaction.

Rye is resistant to many pests and diseases. The two most serious problems to watch out for are armyworms and ergot. The former rarely appears in rye in levels amounting to a major infestation. The latter is a more serious issue, as the ergot fungus can be highly dangerous to both humans and livestock.

Situations where rye is a superb choice include:

• Excessively light soils.
• Compacted soils in need of remediation.
• Weedy fields.

Situations where rye performs more poorly include:

• Hot climates where nighttime temperatures below freezing are uncommon.
• Soils containing excess nitrogen.

Emmer

Emmer is an ancient relative of wheat also known to foodies as farro. It is rather rare except among the most dedicated growers of ancient grains.

Nevertheless, emmer is unquestionably low-maintenance from a production standpoint. It can grow on nearly any soil, it is virtually drought-proof, and it is highly resistant to the various rust and smut diseases. At harvest time, emmer is among the most forgiving of crops, being able to withstand some late rain or early frost. Winter emmer is particularly hardy.

Husks remain around the kernels after threshing, which means that milling is required before the grain can be used.

Emmer is an outstanding choice in the following settings:

• Drought-prone areas.
• Low-fertility soils.

Emmer is not as good of an option in the following situations:

• Strongly acidic soils.
• Very weedy fields.

Grain Sorghum

Grain sorghum (also known as milo, maize, or milo maize, except in Europe, where “maize” is synonymous with United States “corn”) can grow in places where corn simply can’t. The drier the climate, the better sorghum seems to like it. This crop is capable of producing a crop with as little as 6.5 inches of rain, but it is rugged enough to ride out a flood, too. It can tolerate alkali soils up to pH 8.5, as well as soils that are sandy or that are problematic due to salinity or mineral deficiency. Sorghum also responds nicely to minimal tillage.

When rotated with other crops, sorghum tends to have fewer insect and disease issues than corn, although this advantage is lost if sorghum is grown repeatedly over a long period of time.

Situations where sorghum will really shine include:

• Hot, dry climates.

Settings where sorghum will likely not prove suitable include:

• Very small fields and plots, as birds may decimate it.
• Fields where sorghum has been grown repeatedly.
• Strongly acidic soils.

Buckwheat

Hearty, nutritious buckwheat very much resembles a weed in its growth habits. It can thrive on heavy, rocky, or acidic soil, it doesn’t mind wet weather, and it is generally resistant to pests and diseases. It thrives on depleted ground (indeed, too much nitrogen will spoil the crop). All that, and it is ready for harvest only 10 weeks on average after planting, too. Indeed, buckwheat used to be known in pioneer America as “the lazy man’s crop.”

The benefits to the farmer and the field continue past harvest. Buckwheat will aid in suppressing weeds, most notably quackgrass. The flowers provide excellent provender for bees, producing honey of the finest quality. Even after buckwheat has been harvested for food or feed, the remainder of the plant will serve to build up those same poor soils on which it thrives so well, both by contributing organic matter and by supplying a readily available source of phosphorus to the next crop.

But here’s the catch: Buckwheat is notorious for low yields, no matter what efforts are applied. Many consider 30 bushels to the acre to be an exceptionally good yield, and, due to the plant’s failure to inbreed well, buckwheat has so far resisted most efforts to develop high-yielding varieties. The yields may still be further reduced by uneven ripening and the susceptibility of the brittle stems to break in thunderstorms with strong winds and heavy rain.

Buckwheat excels in the following situations:

• Cooler, wetter climates.
• Heavy clays in need of breaking up.
• Weedy fields, particularly those overrun with perennial grasses.

Buckwheat is not suited to the following conditions:

• Climates with high temperatures in fall.
• Areas experiencing severe drought.
• Soils with excess nitrogen.

Beans

There are many different types of beans, each suited to different conditions. Pinto beans, for instance, do well in subhumid to semi-arid climates, while navy beans are better suited to places with a little more rainfall. Black beans thrive in places where pests and diseases would destroy other varieties, while great northern beans are suitable for regions with very short growing seasons. And so on.

Beans perform better on poor soils than do soybeans. But like their more popular fellow legumes, beans will aid in building up the health of those soils over time (an inoculant may be required the first time you plant, particularly on poor soils).

Situations where beans are a good choice include:

• Smaller farms, where a substantial yield must be harvested from a small space.
• Depleted soils.

Settings where beans will not prove suitable include:

• Very cold climates.
• Climates where fall is usually wet, as the beans will likely mold.
• Fields with poor drainage.