About Campbell Farms

The Campbell Farms are a diversified agri-business with interests in cattle, tobacco and  hay & grain production, located in Ripley, Ohio.

You may contact the farm office by phone at 

(937) 392-4308

Go to MapQuest for driving directions.

Campbell Farms

Aquatic Barley Straw

(click on picture for full view)

We first became interested in the use of barley straw for use in our own farm ponds.

Our livestock's main water source is from our ponds and most of the runoff from the spring fed ponds runs on through the creeks and branches on our property so we stray from any unnecessary use of pesticides.

I had read of the use of barley straw in garden ponds and fountains as a safe, organic and "green" method of controlling algae. Upon further investigation I found that farmers in other countries had been using barley straw for decades. Their claims and university studies indicated that barley would not kill algae but inhibit it's growth there by stopping a problem before it got started.

We decided to try it ourselves. We started with a small bale of barley about the size of a loaf of bread that we obtained from a lawn and garden store, (cost $20). For our control we selected a livestock tank on the farm used on a daily bases, was troubled with algae and had that typical stagnate greenish translucent look to it.

The results were expressive if not amazing. Within a few days you could tell a difference and in a couple of weeks the water in the tank was nearly clear. As they say "seeing is believing," so we decided to adapt the same principle to our ponds and lakes. Our problem was finding a quantity of barley straw that was economically feasible for use in larger bodies of water.

It wasn't available in our area so we did what any farmer would do, we raised our own.

Seed and required fertilization was expensive and we sold what straw we didn't need to neighbors to help cover our cost. It worked for them too so they came back to get more and we thought, "if you're going to fool with an acre, might as well fool with 5." The first couple of years were trail and error but we now have a variety and cut of barley that we feel does the ultimate job.

Keep in mind this is an organic way of inhibiting algae and not instant gratification but we firmly believe that it's use combined with a minimum amount of chemicals will provide excellent results.

The cost of an oversized full sized bale (the size of a typical bale of hay) is $6.

Please review the sites and information we have provided on this site to formulate your own opinion. After all, here at Campbell farms we're not chemist or agronomist, just farmers.

David Campbell

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