HELL'S KETTLE: Wicklow Organic beef

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HELL'S KETTLE: Wicklow Organic beef

(Pic copyright Oliver Moore: taken on my recent trip to India, where I encountered an outdoor mart in Andhra Pradesh, India. I was travelling to the farmer members of the Chetna Organic's Fair Trade and Organic Co-op)

Hell's Kettle: hardly the most soft and fluffy of names for an organic farm. But that's the name of the river that runs through Gavin Lynch's organic beef and agroforestry farm in Donard, near the Glen-of-Imaal, Wicklow. So Hell's Kettle is also the name of the organic farm and potential food business.

“We were farming dairy intensively up until 2005. We used to fill 60,000 gallons of milk quota with 30 acres of grazing ground around the parlor. Our farm is at the foot of the Wicklow mountains, so we've a shorter grazing season. The milk price then was quite low, when got out of dairying and into suckler farming. We've had a small suckler herd since then, of 20 cows. 3 years ago we decided to go into organic.”

Like many Irish farms, Hell's Kettle is fragmented. “There are 3 main blocks of land, we've another 30 acres a mile in one direction, and 40 a mile in the opposite direction. That also didn't suit dairying.”

The move from extensive to organic was easy, according to Lynch, as was the move from suckler-weanling to finishing. “Now that we are finishing, we would like to start selling direct, on line, from the farm”

There are a couple of advantages to this – location and skills. Wicklow is close to south Dublin and large Kildare towns like Nass. Also “My father used to be a butcher in Dundrum in Dublin. We'd hope to sell some beef through Lynchs Butchers there. Longer term, we'd like to butcher our own heifers on the farm - we'd need to invest in a building to do that in.”

The farm stocks Aurbac crosses at present. “We have an Aubrac bull, and cross heifers - we're equal opportunity employer when it comes to breeds, its a bit liquorice allsorts here. Hereford Aubrac crosses would be most of what we have, though we have a Belgian Blue crossed with British Freisen and that's a great suckler mix. She's brilliant!”

“In general though,” he points out “you don't want the bigger heavy animals. Slower maturing breeds are better for beef quality.”

He also feels lucky that “there are a good few organic farmers in the area, they are always there to call on. Ernest Mackee is just up road; we saw his Aubrac cattle on a farm walk, and that's partly how we thought they would suit our farm. John Hussey, across the road, does belted Galloways.”

He also find that “there's a sense of community among organic farmers. I'd ring someone out of the blue who I've never met, and they are more than willing to give me their time.”

A significant issue is “the lack of research on organic - I end up trawling the internet at night for research on different aspects of organic production. There is very little research out there that's relevant to Ireland. It makes things difficult.”

And the worst bit? “Having to defend yourself! You get this argument that organic is anti Science. I've a degree in Agricultural Science, and I can tell you that organic couldn't be more scientific. Its not the brute face of science, its more nuanced. Its about how everything interacts together: there is a lot of observation, I find that organic heightens skills”

Lynch only achieved his full organic symbol in March of this year. So what convinced him? “Farming more sustainably was close to my heart. I find its its a lovely way to farm, it pushes you to be a better farmer, because you don't have that few bags of nitrogen, or dosing an animal, to rely on. You have to think a lot about everything that you do, and think more long term.”

“My dad was reluctant in the beginning. He took quite a bit of convincing, but he loves it now. Its even simple things like, yesterday evening we stumbled across a hen phesent nesting in the hazel. He was a child living here when he last saw that”

Next post, we will examine the agro-forestry elements to the Hell's Kitchen enterprise.

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