organic farming

Look at last weeks ear to the ground on RTÉplayer

hugo29 wrote: »

Muckit

do you think its a viable option, would be interested to hear what info you find out, as you say keep the options open,
wonder how is it regulated and is one open to more inspections, paperwork etc

Not in the organic, but know a few that are.
Was quoted:
Organic AAX weanlings were making more at Organic Autumn Sales than some farmers got with their CHX weanlings.
I didn't see either animals

Have a calf to beef enterprise that has been certified 18 years, has it's ups and downs, more paper work, more inspections but the plus side there is a little less work;) except when it comes to weed control:(

Have straw bedded slatted sheds, but fortunate enough to have easy access to straw and the fym is my fertiliser, plus the slurry. Always dig up the straw bed, and heap at the back of the shed at the end of each winter, heats nicely and rots down a good bit which means it breaks up on spreading.

Most are finished off grass, lucky to have a dry farm, and for the few finished during the winter I just have to bite the bullet and buy expensive meal.

Best to finish AA or HE, had difficulties with the LM. Best price last summer was €5.50/kg, and they have to be under 30mths, Quality Beef Assured too.

The OFS pays reasonably well, and I save by not having to spread fertiliser. You need a minimum stocking density of 0.5 lu/ha, I'm managing about 1.1 lu.

Any questions pm me, I don't want to give away too much information.....

biggest issue is the 2 year conversion period. You get all the disadvantages of organic with none of the bonuses

conor t wrote: »

did you grow wheat in 2012,if so how did it go? do you base variety selection all around septoria resistance? any weed problems?

Grew spring barley in 12 , cause the combine man said oct 11 was to wet to plant ! Barley done 2 ton /ac in 12 but as with everyone's quality not great , harvest 11 done 2.5/ac of wheat , tested this years wheat 70 bush @16mo ! i rotate fields , i pick a field or 2 to reseed and plant wheat first and try to get wheat cut in aug and reseed as soon as pos ! Wheat grown on ley ground is easy to grow and nearly weed free , a key trick is to sow heavy 15/16st ac , i also get organic hen manure and plough it down 6-8 ton /ac and in the spring 3000gals / ac of cattle slurry thats all it needs !

bogman_bass wrote: »

biggest issue is the 2 year conversion period. You get all the disadvantages of organic with none of the bonuses

Its not that bad , u would do nothing in farming if ya always needed a fast euro! 212€ /ha is good bonus for those years !

INOX wrote: »

Is straw bedding the only housing acceptable, or could cubicles be used for organic stock? Straw would work out expensive round here.

Main reason that straw is preffered is purely that its good organic fertilizer/ organic matter to build up the soils!


Was on a walk in an organic farm last year and the thing that stood to it was massive grass management. All feilds that could be done were reseeded every 4-5 years and the rest over seeded.
The reseeding was done by ploughing then sowing a crop of corn(barley or oats i think) then over sown with grass. The grass took care of the weeds as much as possible, then the grain was cut early and crimped into pit to provide the "meal" for cattle and the grass and straw was mowed and baled for silage.

The feilds were then oversowed with a lower rate of grass and red clover.
The red clover needed serious management tho as it needs to be grazed tight to get the most out of it but if the root gets any damage it's gone..

The red clover awards were also baled for silage, i cant remember the exact figure but i know it was light cuts of super quality and the protein was through the roof thanks to the protein, it left it that very little meal would be needed along side the silage to finish cattle

Ah. So if in Glas not all organic payments will be eligible?

Now a lad went into Organics and regreting it. Very expensive nearly €600 a tonne for meal. No double payment on GLAS or Organics its one or the other. Cattle cannot get dosed with antibiotics and get sold as organic and over the life of a beast quite a few need an antibiotic; withdrawal periods doubled for medicines or tribled and the real killer is according to him need to book cattle in months in advance to factory. Might some but not easy. Also Organic hay is killing him cannot get it easily and he has none saved.

My understanding is that if your not rearing your own stock but buying stock in each yr, you must buy organic stock. You cannot go to your normal mart and source your stock. So may not suit summer grazers. You options/sources to purchase these stock may be limited and you may pay more for them. Scheme only really suits those with sucklers and bedding on dung during winter thus having the waste to spread. Getting waste milk product from factories to supplement dung may not be easy. Alot want it now so you may have long wait if lucky.
Info from 2 farmers i know in the scheme.

Tomjim wrote:

If I was to turn organic How much extra in an organic payment would I receive taking into consideration my Glas payment

You won't get an organic payment on top of your glas payment. The organic licence will give priority access to GLAS but for the land you have in GLAS you will forgo the organic payment. So if you have 10Ha in low input pp you will get 314 for that and the rest of your land you can claim an organic payment. For your 2 year conversion period it's 220/Ha and then the payment for the remaining 3 years is 170/Ha

Any organic farmer here I could ask a few quistions?

yea fire away!!

I didn't realise we had so many organic farmers around, that's a hidden fount of knowledge if ever there was one!

I hope they don't hand out all the advice by PM, I'd love to hear what they are all up to and the challenges of it. Every organic thread I ever read seems to be an enquiry about whether the grants are big enough to be worth the hassle of converting which is hardly the point!

Bring it on!

Same as that will be fully organic in may after 2 year conversion,im a young farmer living in north west where land is marginal with some good plots here and there,majority of farmers here are organic farming in all but name as its hard to stock much higher than min 0.5 lu/ha anyways with 6 month winters etc So not much change for me if anything i had to increase stock,bit more cleaning out of sheds and cant lick rushes apart from that the organic payment helps keep me farming full time and give me more interest in farming the land as opposed to just running 3 and 4 sucklers on rough hills of 20 acres plus also cant rely on 18-6-12 short tern fix so more interested in slowly increasing fertility of soil and getting ph right.Basically farming in harmony with nature as always has been done here anyway and hopefully add value to the excelent quality weanings that are produced in this area.The way i see it it was either try farm the land to its natural advantages or else give up plant trees and get a day job,and us farmers hate to give in:-)Only 1800 organic farmers in ireland is shocking since were such a green isle,but farmers are slow to change to their own detriment and to the advantage of fertilizer and chemical companys