beef

Showing posts with label beef. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beef. Show all posts
Thursday, 29 October 2015

Organic 2015 - Harvest is in But Where's the Beef?


With the harvest in, I spoke with some organic tillage farmers about their crop yield and quality, as well as the price they get paid for it. As it happens, some of the beef producers had something to say too.

Kitty Colchester of Second Nature Oils, in Urlingford
Ben Colchester in Urlingford, Kilkenny: “We were happy with our harvest. The oats were clean and though they were harvested at 20% moisture our dryer brought them down to 15% at which point it was weighed as it went in arctics to Flahavans. It worked out at 2.15 tonnes per acre whereas we usually consider 2 to be about average.  Most loads were 59 bushel weight with one load 59.5 so we were very happy with that.”

Colchester, farming organically since the 1970s, also grows oilseed rape:

“The oilseed rape gave an average green yield of a tonne to the acre, which is on par, but it was on the main dirtier than usual due to the cold spell in May when the rape stood still for a critical period of time. Also the combining was later than usual - for the same reason - resulting in high moisture.

Having cleaned and dried it we started pressing and I must say it has particularly good flavour this year.”

Shirley Ladd of Castletownroche, is certified organic for four years. She has ten acres of oats as well as. She doesn’t do moisture count or bushel weight as her oats are for animal feed. “We’d no major trouble with pests or weather. Our yield was two tonnes this year.”

James Kearney farms with his brother Thomas near Fermoy in Cork.

The Kearney’s grow seven acres of oats and stock cattle to finish. “We’d a very good harvest, it was the best in a long time. The yield was 2.75 tonne per acre, it was good last year too, at 2.5 tonnes per acre, but this year was better. We applied more farm yard manure. It all went to the tillage - last year it was divided up.

Moisture was 16.5%, bushel weight 51. We’re happy with both. Last year it was 55 and the moisture was the same.”

So far so good, but for James Kearney, the issue is the market: or, more specifically, getting products finished.

“We are getting E340 tonne this year for the oats. It didn’t sell last year, we had to keep it for feed.”
The problem with organic oats is that “you only get two or three good years out of every five”.
His cattle stock has been declining from 40 to 15 and now just five.

“We’d cattle booked in with the Good Herdsman six months before they were due to be killed in September. They rang two weeks before and said they didn’t have a market for them.”

“They were all the time advertising, but they wouldn’t kill: you could only get ones and twos killed. I had 40 last year, I had to sell 20 of them conventional. I only got a few of the coloured cattle - the charolais and limousin - killed, but it took a long time. So don’t have as many now, and I’m taking them to the conventional marts.

“I’m always reading about people coming in and joining organic, and on the farm walks, it’s all talk about price. And the price is good - 4.95 to 5e per kg - so when you get it you are happy. Price brings people into organic, but getting the animals killed is the problem”.

This is compounded by the fact that when he buys in, “its 2-300E more costly for weanlings than in conventional.”

Because of these factors, James Kearney is leaving the Organic Farming Scheme in December.
Whatever about the harvest and the price then, there has to be a market too. 
Monday, 5 October 2015

The Leonard's Castlewood Organic Farm Shop in Laois

Dominic and Ali Leonard’s 250 acre mixed farm  in south east Laois is something of a model farm. It has been used as a Teagasc demonstration farm, and is likely to be visited even more frequently, with the opening of a shop and tea rooms earlier this year.
Oliver Moore: Tell me about your background Dominic.
Dominic Leonard: 15 years ago I moved from Dublin, when my uncle wanted to retire. He was alone, farming for 25 years, 30 years, and he asked if I’d take over.
In Dublin, I’d worked with Focus Ireland and trained in psychotherapy. I’d always had an interest in environmental issues, being an active Green Party member, shopping in the Dublin food co-op and so on. 
My Uncle wasn’t necessarily into organic, he thought all the animals would die. But the farm was never pushed hard. It was gentleman farming beforehand, in a way.
OM: Tell me about the farm.
DL: We’re between Durrow and Abbeyleix, close to Kilkenny. Its 250 acres, including woodland, and some boggy areas, though its mostly good land. 
When we took over it was dry stock - cattle and sheep - as well as tillage. Now we've also got pigs, a reasonable sized orchard, hens as well as cattle, sheep and tillage. 
It’s our own stock there’s no buying in. We like this and a closed system. 
We have 30 suckler cows at present, but we’ll be increasing this.  We finish all the cattle here on the farm, and sell to Slaney meats. Our cattle are a Simmental cross with an Angus bull. 
OM: Why Simmental?
DL: Simmental adds a bit of size. But it’s hard to source stock at the moment. We used to go to marts, but the stock isn’t what I tend to want. It’s a fair trek to an organic mart in the west or north, only to find nothing. 
 It’s hard to find nice Simmental animals in organic system. So we’ve been using AI which isn’t always successful. There are lots of Angus crosses out there, but I want something a little more growth potential than just Angus. Recently John Purcell (Good Herdsman) is buying up weanlings for veal and export, which takes stock out of system. 
OM: So what do you do? Import? 
DL: No, we have the occasional conventional breeding heifer, with a derogation. The cows don’t go into org system, but the stock born from them can be organic.  There’s no market for organic cows anyway. 
OM: How are the other aspects to the farm doing? 
DL: We have 130 ewes, and about 300 sheep on the farm in total. They are all finished here too and, thankfully, we get to sell most of these into the organic system: our lambs go to Irish country meats in Camolin. 
They are Belclare ewes with a Texel Lamb. Our tillage is 40 acres a year at the moment, its limited by the rotation. We supply oats for Flahavans, the rest is for ourselves, for the animals on the farm.
We did a lot of pork before the recession, but the market just hasn’t been there since then. The organic feed for pigs is expensive, this in turn makes the product dear, and people won’t buy it.
We have sold at farmers’ markets too, but they have decreased too since the recession. So we’ve sold frozen meat - lamb, pork, bacon - from the house here.
OM: This direct selling seems to have tweaked the Leonard’s interest in upscaling this side of the farm enterprise. As and from March of this year, the couple run a farm shop and tea rooms, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“It was never just the shop.” Dominic tells me. “It was also incorporating the whole farm: we were a demonstration farm for a long time, we’ve held lots of other walks, so it was using the farm to the best of its ability really. To make the place a day out for people. So it’s also about diversification. We're lucky, as the location is scenic, beside the river Nore, with lots of old trees and woodlands.” 
While both work in the shop, which opens Friday to Sunday, Alison does the Lion’s share of this part of their overall enterprise.
OM: When does your farm cafe working day begin? 
Alison Leonard: It depends, but usually I’d be up at the shop at 7.30. That’s when I start baking the day’s fresh cakes, scones and bread, as well as making the soup. We open at 10 AM, except on Sundays, when we open at 11. 
Dominic may help at 10 if he’s available, but it really depends on what he’s doing on the farm. Last Friday he was up at 6 making burgers and sausages from our own meat, before he started on the farm work. So partly it depends on what’s on the menu, as to who starts and what they do. There is the shop and tearooms’ requirements, but there is also the farm’s requirements. That said, I’m here all the time when we’re open, he comes and goes. 
So what happens from 10AM?
AL: We do a mid morning tea, lunch and an afternoon tea at the moment. From 10, we have regulars who go for walks in the woods, and drop in for a cuppa afterwards.  We bake our own cookies, cakes and scones here.  It’s similar for afternoon tea. Then at lunch it depends, it might be carrot and courgette soup with bread we bake. Friday tends to be our busiest day for lunch. People are also always dropping in for our fresh meat from the shop, and the other local and organic products we sell. The shop also sells a local ice cream and honey, Kate Urwin’s local organic flaxseed, Kitty Colchester’s organic second nature oils.
OM: Is it all your own produce from the farm?
AL: The meats are all our own and are organic. We have the whole meat preparation area certified organic.  The kitchen isn’t in the organic system, and we use a mixture of our own produce, local produce and organic produce.  By not certifying the kitchen, I can buy local or Irish rather than imported organic.
OM: Did yourself or Dominic get any training to prepare for this? 
AL: I did a short course with Blathnaid Bergin - Darina Allen’s sister - in the School of Restaurant and Kitchen Management, nearby in Abbeyleix. Dominic did a butchery course, while LEADER also helped with funding.
OM: Has anything unexpected come up in running a shop?
I suppose I’ve found that regular customers came quite quickly. You get to know them and what they like – that was a suprise. You get so caught up in building, the regulations and so on, it’s actually been nice to develop a relationship with people who come in. People can also ask about the farm, about organics, as it’s a family business. They know I’m here and I’ve made the cakes! People also ask for recipes, so that’s been good.
OM Future plans?
AL: Here, we may add a Sunday Brunch soon, using our own sausages and bacon. 
Sunday, 17 May 2015

Drumanilra Farm: round the world now organic in Boyle

On the 15th May, Justina and Liam Gavin Drumanilra farm, just outside Boyle in County Roscommon, will became full symbol organic. I spoke with Liam about their set up.

Oliver Moore: Tell me about your background Liam: how did you end up farming organically in Roscommon?

Liam Gavin:  We lived in the fishing village of Brixham Devon for 11 years. My mother is originally is originally from Roscommon, she was born on the farm we’re on now, as was her mother. My father was from Mayo. I’ve lived all over the place - Africa, the UK and Ireland.  Justina is Australian. 

We met at an NGO event in Africa, she was in Uganda, I was in Rwanda at the time. I was working with different organisations, running a logistics company to supply NGOS like Trocaire, Goal and Oxfam. etc). We imported seeds, agricultural tools and refugee survival kits for distribution in the many Refugee Camps in the area, after the Rwandan massacres of 1994, Justina  was volunteering as a teacher in Uganda, then we worked together in the logistics business.

OM: All a far cry from Roscommon.

LG: True! I used to come here when I was a kid, my uncle didn’t have kids, I used to work on the farm, and I really loved it. My degree was in Agriculture from UCD. I veered away from agriculture directly, and more into agri business and marketing, running a self-catering holiday property agency called Blue Chip Holidays with Justina’s family, and also a chain of coffee shops in Dublin.
In 2004, when Justina was pregnant with our first child, my Uncle told me he’d be leaving us the farm. We’d visited a lot, and realised then this is what we wanted. I wanted to come back here, where I ’d spent so many summers. This is what I was connected to. We moved back in 2012.

OM: So tell me about the goodlife.

LG: We’re in-conversion to organic with 40 acres on the shores of Lough Key, specialising in rare and heritage breed pigs, cattle, sheep and poultry.

We stock Dexters – a bull, 9 breeding females, 7 calves and one more to come, along with four calves from last year.  There’s Berkshire and Tamworth sows as well as about fifty Jacob and Shetland sheep.

Where we are is not considered great land, historically there would be smaller breeds on this land, and the smaller native breeds suit this land. The cattle I see around now are massive. Dexters are easier on the land, they don’t ruin it even when they are out all winter.

OM: How was the farm when you arrived?

LG: The farm was very overgrown.  We’d to do extensive work cutting back hedges, clearing old field drains and putting in new ones.  I did a chainsaw qualification, fenced and got the place under control.

We’ve cleared a lot with the pigs. So we’ve been ploughing  each field with the pigs, harrowed with disc harrow, then the grass harrow then we planted seed. After that the fields were ready. We expect to do this every five to six years, rotating the cattle, sheep and poultry.  

OM: How have you found adjusting to farming?

LG: The UCD degree seems like ancient history now! I’m still learning, the neighbours are great family friends and they’ve helped a lot. The older guys have given me great advice. I’ve learned a lot, it’s not been easy but I love the way of life. Lambing and calving is tough, up at 4am for 4-5 weeks. 
It’s the practical things, breech births and the like, that you have to learn how to manage. I had to look up how to artificially inseminate a pig on the internet.

OM: An unusual one to google.

LG: Indeed! 

OM: Where is your meat slaughtered?

LG: Stanley Taylor's abattoir, which is just 15 minutes away. He’s inspected by the Organic Trust, and does the sheep and cattle for us. For the pigs, we use Gerry Burden in Grange outside Sligo.

OM: You sell your meat direct. How and why did you go this route?

LG: Since 2014, we have been experimenting with routes to market for our beef, pork and lamb. From the outset our vision has been to sell direct to the consumer.  This brings its own challenges.  There is a lot of work in attempting to cover off all the links in the "farm to fork" food chain yourself!

In the Summer of 2014, we launched our bespoke "Shepherd's Hut" style catering trailer to tour shows and festivals. The Shepherd's Hut is also available for large private functions. We serve heritage breed burgers and hot-dogs, handmade from Dexter Beef and Tamworth pork produced here on the farm, on artisan breads and with locally grown salads. 

The idea has always been to work with others. We’d like to help provide a marketing opportunity for other organic farmers with product to sell. 



Last Summer we toured with our catering trailer and won a Mckenna Food Guide award at the Electric Picnic.We have been selling our produce at the local farmers' market on Saturdays too.

OM:Then you upgraded to a shop?

LG: In stages! At Christmas we opened a small "pop-up shop" in Boyle, selling turkeys, traditional dry cure Christmas hams, sausages, bacon rashers and Dexter beef.  We also had a small deli offer, where we show-cased local artisan cheeses, breads, locally grown organic veg and provided a space for local crafts people to sell and exhibit. 

On April 1st, we opened our new Drumanilra Farm Shop. Its on Bridge Street, Boyle, the nearest town to the farm. We sell organic meat from our own farm and meat sourced from other local organic producers. We also stock a deli range including Irish farmhouse cheeses, olives, fresh baked breads, pastries, salamis, balsamic vinegar and so on.

As well as our own meat, we stock John Cullen's beef from Frenchpark, lamb from Robbie Forbe's organic farm near Lough Rea and of course our own Drumanilra Farm pork sausages and traditional dry cure bacon.

We take delivery of organic chickens from Margaret McDonnell in the Curragh, on a Wednesday, together with organic veg from Kinneden Organics in nearby Dromod.
Drumanilra farm shop is opened Monday to Saturday, 9 to 6. (No website yet, but find them of facebook)
Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Good Herdsman Secures Large European Organic Meat Contract

Organic meat processor The Good Herdsman have secured a new organic babyfood contract in Germany worth over E2 million annually. This will involve almost 300 tonnes of Irish organic meat per year.

Former Minister Trevor Sargent, Josef Finke and John Purcell at an earlier Biofach 

The tonnage will be made up of 160 tonnes of beef, 100 of veal and 35 of lamb. This follows a trial run of 15 tonnes October last. This new arrangement has just been put into place this month, and may well begin to address the leakage of organic meat into the conventional sector.

Organic babyfood has long been a strong driver of the organic sector. As long ago as 1996, 60% of babyfood on the German market was already certified organic. Not only is the market very mature on the Continent, in countries like Italy and Russia, veal is very much sought after, especially for babyfood.

John Purcell of the Good Herdsman is understandably delighted with this new deal. “We need to keep weanlings in the organic system” he tells me, pointing out that as many as 3 to 4000 are lost to the conventional sector each year.

Indeed almost 7000 organic cattle are lost into the conventional system annually, despite prices that are considered high by European standards.

With such heavy loses, there is now a new opportunity to prevent leakage. “We're not aiming to take organic beef weanlings out of the system to supply this new market, we're aiming to prevent animals being lost to the conventional sector” Purcell points out.

To address these new needs for extra organic veal animals, The Good Herdsman will have monthly weigh days in Skibbereen mart, with payments on the day. One such mart is upcoming Tuesday 4th February. Cork has significant numbers of organic sucklers by national standards. 

Price wise, with an average of about E2.51kg for 8 month old Irish conventional veal animals, the organic price is likely to be about 20% above this conventional price.

Organic veal is not produced in confinement, nor is it bucket fed. The calves suckle their mothers right up to slaughter age, so the meat is red  rather than pink. They are essentially reared as normal calves up to 8 months, while the bull calves are not castrated.  

John Purcell tells me that “250 kg liveweight is ideal for veal, continentals such as Belgan Blues work well, while dairy calves can also work. We've killed Belgian Blues at 340 kg at 8 months. Calves can often be about 220 kg at that age, farmers should be aiming for 250kg”.

Purcell also recommends that “farmers start to prepare now.” He adds “if they are calving down in February or March, its worth having this veal option in mind.” If farmers opt for this, then they should “keep the bulls as bulls, and get in touch as soon as possible with the Good Herdsman, with ideally three to four months notice.”

Irish organic meat gets a great reception in Europe, due to Ireland's lack of a tradition of industralisation. There are also style differences between the Irish and Continental products; “In France there are a lot of dairy animals in the system, while in Germany bull beef dominates”  says Purcell.

“We’ve stand at Biofach in Germany from 11th of February, I'd encourage farmers to attend and get involved. Irish organic farmers can be more market led, the demand for organic food in most of Europe is immense.” 
He points to organic meat sales rising by 12% in Germany, 9% in Sweden and 13% in France.

“In France we had no market just two years ago, now we supply 16 five star hotels with striplions, and its growing every month.”

The future could be said to look bright then, for many segments of the Irish organic meat sector.


Sunday, 8 December 2013

New Organic Body Expresses Disquiet at Supports

“If the new CAP round doesn't do anything for organic farming, I'll leave the Organic Farming Scheme. As will many others”


These are the stark words of Galway organic suckler farmer Padraig Finnegan. Finnegan is part of a new group based in the Galway and Roscommon region calling itself the Organic Farmers Representative Body. 150 farmers are represented by this group, they state.

“The IFA nor anyone else are doing anything for organic farmers. The certification bodies go into talks on CAP  but don’t promote organic farming, they are getting money for themselves and that’s all. We are trying to get the farmers voice into this.”

Finngean adds: “our subsidy is supposed to be for the extra work and the loss of income involved in farming organic. “The last CAP was all about stocking rate. But the organic man has much lower stocking rate. This meant that Organic Farmers have suffered a disproportionately low Single Farm Payment for the last 13 years. No body was making any case for us”

Regarding payments, the OFRB’s CAP submission to the Department sets out specifics:

• Review and increase scheme payment rates in the light of more realistic organic
production costs and the existing low level of organic production here.

• Pay the increased rates at a higher level in years 1 and 2 as at present with an end
year 2 opt-out clause for those finding it impossible to continue in organics.

• Pay the increased rates in years 3 to 7 for those not opting out at three-quarters of the in-conversion rate rather than half of that rate as at present.

• Pay the full increased rate on each applicant’s first 20 hectares, two thirds that rate on the next 20 hectares and a third of the rate on the last 15 hectares.

“Only 1% are in organics; people join, do 5 years and leave. If the scheme was right they would continue on in it” he stresses. “The future of organic farmers in Ireland will hinge on the outcome of the new CAP deal.”

The OFRB is also concerned about certification costs. “Organic Farmers on smaller hectares are charged a disproportionately high certification fee compared to their larger counterparts. For example, 11.75 hectares full certification symbol costs E400 per annum which roughly amounts to approx 1/3 of the Organic Farming Scheme payments. Compare this to 7% for a farmer on 55 Hectares in full Symbol.”

“There are also extra costs in maintaining livestock over Winter”, he points out. “The cost of maintaining stock over winter months equates to roughly double the cost of conventional –there’s the extra use of straw, extra costs of meal at 50% extra approximately. We also have double and triple the withdrawal periods, which means longer retention periods for cattle and sheep before sales.”

The organisation also has issues with marts and markets. “At present livestock going for slaughter are transported from the furthest point west to a processing plant in the South East of the country, causing animals to endure long periods in transport on trucks. If 1 full load cannot be collected at 1 assembly point the truck moves to various points until the load is filled, travelling through many different counties. We recommend reducing the transportation of live animals and instead use local abattoirs and transport carcasses instead.”  

He expands “We as a group have successfully negotiated the sale of organic cattle at conventional marts and this we hope to expand country wide. In our view this is selling our produce locally as opposed to transporting animals’ long distances to be sold in organic marts.” 

So what will come of this new development? And what do others in the organic sector think of the emergence of the OFRB, and what they are saying? Interesting times ahead.
Saturday, 14 September 2013

ORGANIC ACTION PLAN: the bare minimum.

What will the launch of the Organic Action Plan 2013-2015 mean for the organic sector in Ireland? Let's take a look. 

It is certainly a positive to have an action plan in place. There are however major and minor issues with this plan.

Nowhere is any significant recognition given to the fact that all previous Organic Action Plans have failed and failed miserably.

Using the same structure – stakeholder consultation and a forum to drive it - as previous action plans have used reflects that famous quote often attributed to Einstein (and others such as Mark Twain): the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.

Why not bring in, in a comprehensive and leading way, experts from organic sectors where growth has actually occurred, experts who would be neutral and objective in all things to do with the Irish organic sector? Wales, Austria and more recently France are obvious examples.

While this need not be the only methodology, it would certainly be a useful addition to the failed methods of old. Acknowledgment of past failures and evidence of learning is important if improvements are to be made.

So why not do what Bord Bia did in bringing in Harvard Business School experts to help develop the notion of co-opetition, which shaped Pathways to Growth, which in turn became Harvest 2020?

Harvest 2020 in turn includes Origin Green, the vision for a sustainable agri-food Ireland which incidentally seems very close to a pr version of 'organic lite'.

According to the action plan processors pointed to fragmentation, which makes consistency and thus sectoral growth difficult to attain. This, it says, informed much of the plan.

Processors are undoubtedly important in make up the stakeholder mix. However there are hardly any of them. Many producers feel that competition - i.e. more processors – might improve prices and thus bring more into the market. While organic producers in Ireland are paid good prices by European standards, this price is defined largely by conventional prices, which have been quite strong in Ireland in recent years.

Another issue with this action plan is that there are plenty of references to budgetary constraints - “A more realistic focus based on current resources” - but ring fenced budget provisions are absent.

Yet, as the Irish Organic Milk Producers, Mossfield, Good Herdsman and many others prove, export markets that are there are tapped into. So why not make investments to generate increased revenue?

Instead of investments however, the organic sector has seen cutbacks - of the numbers of Teagasc organic advisors, of national organic week and of the national organic awards, to name three.

The language too is extraordinarily aspirational for a plan that's supposed to be devoted to action. “Encourage” “seek to” “support” “attempt to” “it is hoped” - this language is peppered liberally throughout the document. In fact, many sentences in the actions part of the document start with or are defined by a non committal phrase of this type.

Growth for organic poultry and pork has been officially sidelined for 2013-2015, according to this document. Despite the success of operators like the Crowes in Tipperary – last year's National Organic Awards winners - and the Aherns in Cork, poultry and pork are now considered “much more challenging” after investigation. In fact, the only reference to pork and poultry in the entire 20 page document is in the above reference to the situation as challenging.

There are positives cited : provisions in the new CAP and public procurement primarily – but even here aspiration and practical reality may end up poles apart.

While certainly not overly ambitious, the fact that this action plan is so strong on aspiration and so devoid of commitments of resources does not necessarily auger well for its success.

How does the recently launched Organic Action Plan 2013-2015 perform sector by sector?

Cross Sectoral recommendations 
The Cross Sectoral recommendations are very general. Statements like “Support SMEs and artisan producers to develop to their full potential” are generic to the point of vapidity: how could the relevant stakeholders not do this?

The one place the cross sectoral section shows any teeth is on public procurement: “Attempt to achieve a baseline commitment for organic produce under public procurement contracts”.

This may sound weak, but is aggressive by the standards of the document. And this is a key battle ground in developing the organic sector. All over Europe -  in France in particular -  this is one way that the organic sector has grown rapidly recently.

The problem however, is that a massive portion of Irish agrifood is supposedly green by default and thus fine for green public procurement: Bord Bia Quality Assured may be enough to qualify. Not of course the idea of green public procurement at EU level, but that's agri-food in Ireland. Score: 4/10

Beef and lamb
Beef and lamb has some noteworthy elements: a short term plan to assess income forgone with a view to increasing payments under the Organic Farming Scheme is very positive. Likewise, encouraging processors to establish a base price is very important, and would have an impact were it to occur. Winter organic demonstration walks is also a positive suggestion.

Some other recommendations are repetitive  - both within the document itself and a repetition of earlier research done by Teagasc. In general the broad attempt to improve efficiencies, training and supports in many of the recommendations in the beef and lamb section are fine, provided of course resources are put in place for this to happen. A dedicated organic equivalent of the BETTER farms initiative could work here. Score 4/10

Dairy
The diary section is very short indeed. Lack of cereal and the upcoming end of quota are cited as concerns. There is reference made to developing critical mass to develop export markets, but Irish organic dairy does well already re exports, considering how small the sector actually is.

Instead, as the document itself states, the issue is a complete lack of new entrants, and nothing in this section suggests these may be arriving any time soon. Score 2/10

Horticulture
Horticulture has a large section. The home market is the key untapped market here, and fragmentation is the key challenge for retailers.

If you are a current organic horticulturist, expect a lot of surveys coming into your inbox or postbox - for establishing current production and import substitution levels is listed as key. More mature organic growers will of course have filled these in many times before, which might impact on the reply rate.

Nevertheless there are some interesting suggestions for training, grower trials and research. A reference to “establish potential to provide funded specialist short term advice” will certainly be Organic growers of Ireland (OGI). This, it seems, is as close as hort will get to its dedicated organic advisor. While this is more than the other sectors are getting, the point is hamstrung again by aspirational language. Score 5/10

Organic aquaculture gets a large section, reflecting its increasing market relevance. However there can be other limits to growth, as the Galway Bay organic salmon farm débâcle points to. Score NA

As a farming readership has little interest in aquaculture, we'll jump to the final section on cereals.

Cereals
Its a tiny section, but introduced by a very upbeat preamble, about “clear” potential animal feed businesses, and about “insufficient supply” .

The points, few as they are, are interesting. Encouraging establishment of one course feed manufacturing by large scale organic tillage operators; researching imports with a view to replace them, and also actually doing (not endeavouring to, or some other aspirational language) research and cropping trials, and also equipment trials. Score 5/10

Overall: 20/50 (a bare pass)
Friday, 5 July 2013

TEAGASC ORGANIC FARM WALKS 2013


Teagasc organic demonstration farm walks are in full swing now, running until September 19th. These include three farms new to the initiative. (Full listing here)

Teagasc's Dan Clavin spoke about this year's walks.

(photo: (C) Oliver Moore of farm walk on Sean O Farrell's farm, National Organic Week 2012)

Oliver Moore: why did you select these new farmers?

Dan Clavin: We need to freshen it up each year. You need to show people different things, and there are geographic considerations too. There are walks in each of the provinces and in general, they are well spread out. The ones chosen are good producers, with good access to markets and they are also good communicators. The main thing however is that they are successful at producing crops, farming animals, and have good markets.”

OM: Tell me about the farms where demonstration walks are being held?

DC: John Curran (Friday 12 July) is a beef and sheep farmer near Navan in Meath, and is a member of the Leitrim Organic Farmers Co-Op. The north east is not an area we have many organic farmers, so we'd hope to start to develop some there.

Alan Jackson (Thursday 22 August) is near Riverstown in Birr, Offaly, and farms beef and cereals. Pat Mulrooney (Friday 23 August) did walks before, but hasn't in a few years. He's back this year. Paddy Byrne is in county Dublin, and he direct sells vegetables (Tuesday 10 September), including partly through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) type set up.

OM: There is only one dairy walk. How did you select the enterprises you've chosen?
DC: True there's only one dairy walk .We think dairy has the most potential in the south, and Pat is in south Tipperary. Beef cereal and veg have the most potential and thus the most walks. There probably are a few more direct selling producers hosting walks than there are proportionally.”

OM What would the format typically be for a walk?
DC: It differs from sector to sector, but we cover the same topics we cover in the organic training courses. So that's context, production, the standards and the market. For beef, the walks would tend to cover all relevant aspects - grass reseeding, soil health, nutrient management, breed selection and more for production for example. There is a lot of useful technical information made available and discussed.


OM: Some of the walks this year are marked “BTAM approved”. What does this mean?
DC: BTAP approved means “beef tech adaption programme.” This is a Department scheme, based around discussion groups. There are a few dedicated organic ones around Ireland: one in the south, Elaine (Leavy the other Teagasc Advisor) has two in the midlands, while John Brennan (Leitrim Organic Farmers' Co-op) has onein the north west too. Farmers learn about the latest developments, practices and technologies at the BTAM walks. Attending an event is a compulsory part of the scheme, and the organic demonstration walks marked 'BTAM' count. There is one in each province.

(BTAM walks 2013 are: Thursday 19 September Patrick O Connor, Mullinroe, Clondrohid, Macroom, Co Cork Beef; Friday 26 July Pat Booth, Heath, Kilone, Stradbally, Co. Laois Beef, Cereals; Wednesday 28 August Mark Duffy, Bellview, Clogher, Ballybay, Co Monaghan Beef; Tuesday 16 July; Oliver Dixon, Ahena, Claremorris, Co Mayo Beef, Cereals.)

OM: Are the walks primarily designed for conventional producers thinking about organic?
DC: They are useful for organic farmers too! This year, we're also emphasising that the public, consumers, are more than welcome. All farmers, family farm members, and members of the public are more than welcome. They will get to see organic farming in practice and to meet and speak with the producers and the sector’s experts.

All walks start at 2pm.
Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Horsemeat, decent local organic farmers and the vagaries of consumption


Has the horsemeat just scandal just faded into the vague vagaries of the general mind? Oliver Moore investigates.

For the first time in many months, organic food sales are increasing once again in the UK. John Purcell of the Good Herdsman, Ireland's largest organic meat processor, has seen sales increase of 3-4% in the UK.

Survey findings from Kantar World Panel found a general increase in the UK over the last 3 months. “The 12 week year on year picture shows a +1.6% for organic food sales - the first time the market has seen year on year growth since 2009.” Kantar reported.

The backdrop to this is the horsemeat scandal, which primarily effected the UK and Ireland, and which hasn't involved organic meat.

European sales for Irish organic meat are strong, and growing steadily, but not in a significant way effected by the horsemeat scandal, John Purcell of the Good Herdsman, and others have said.

The move towards online and specialist purchases, noted in this blog recently, has continued, especially with supermarkets pulling organic lines in anticipation of what they were predicting as a decline.

So there is a small bounce due to a scandal, as there often is. The UK market is now OK, the European market quite strong, but what of Ireland, and Irish farmers who direct sell?

Michael Seymour (above) of Sheepwalk farm farms 125 acres in the farm in Borrisokane, Tipperary. He direct sells his meat in Nenagh farmers' market.

As his farm is half callows, his stocking rate is lower: he carries about 40 mostly Angus cattle as well as 80 Texel ewes and over 100 lambs.

From June he usually takes lambs to the butchers. In general, Seymour tried to sell as much direct as he can: this in practice is easier for beef than lamb.

I asked Michael Seymour if there has been a pick up in sales since the horsemeat scandal.

“There certainly was a spike, but its settled down now. People move on” he tells me, noting the fickleness of the media.

Horsemeat was front page story a few weeks back, but you also get new scandals, and people's minds focus on these.

He elaborates: “some old customers have come back, some new ones have also arrived who've said they've heard about me”

When pressed on where they might have heard about him, he couldn't elaborate. Perhaps his natural politeness and respectful nature wouldn't pry too deeply into this sort of information, but of course this is the kind of stuff the marketers are always telling people to do – pry.

“It might have been in relation to horsemeat, people were probably taking about where they get their meat from, and my name may have come up in conversation” .

This is of course likely – meat sourcing has been a hot conversational topic in recent months.

As well as word of mouth, Seymour does various trade shows and is part of the Tipperary Food Producers. So they may have heard of him in more than one place.

“Any significant media, big or small, gives a bit of a bump – If Peter Ward (of Nenagh's Country Choice) is on the Late Late, or if there is a big scandal, they all add a short term bump, but not a longer term one – that requires commitment from the customer.”

Some farmers markets face pressures from short sighted town councils who can't see the wood from the trees.

When Nenagh farmer's market wanted to change to a mote prominent location, the possibility of loosing a few parking spaces on a Saturday horrified the town council.

That was then - two years ago. Now the town council offer free parking on a Saturday, just to bring people into the town.

The wood from the trees indeed.

Friday, 31 May 2013

FODDER CRISIS SOLUTIONS: FOIRIN


There once was a wonder grass called Fiorin. Foirin was the kind of grass you'd want with weather, and a fodder crisis, like we've had recently.


Fiorin was resilient. It had “sticktoitivness” to use a word Erin Brokovitch used to describe herself some years back.

Foirin could turn unfarmable land into economically productive land.

Called Shammer around Cork, Foirin could reclaim deep bogs and moors. Underground, its grew out rather than down, hence its other name – creeping bent grass.

John Feehan tells a wonderful story about Foirin in his weighty, worthy tome Farming in Ireland. In outlining the enthusiast's case, he exclaims: “it grew nearly as well in the Winter months as Summer, and foirin hay could be saved as easily in Winter or Spring as in Autumn - it could be saved in wet weather!”


Feehan continues: “Horses sheep and cattle preferred foirin to “natural hay and clover hay” and that the milk of cattle fed on it was superior”


What's more Foirin was especially suited to wet ground and cold clay though, with careful management, it could be a useful grass on dry ground too.

Fiorin stayed green when cut as hay, and it was reputed to produce between 10 and 20 tonnes of green food yearly, as reported in the Munster Farmer's Journal of 1812 and elsewhere. Alcohol could also be made from Foirin, due to its high Saccharin content.

This historical story doens't end there. For Foirin is still with us, and the very occasional farmer still benefits from its presceint presence.

One such farmer is Joe Condon in the Commeragh-Knockmealdown mountain range on the Tipperary Waterford border, of Omega Beef Direct.  I worked with Joe for some years helping other farmers learn from the production and indeed distribution system he practiced.

Joe practices transhumance with his Galloway cattle. The animals rotate between the lower green land around the home farm and the upland commonage, from winter to summer.

“When the hill comes on, the land will get a rest” he tells me. Each year recently, the animals have gone out onto the hill at different times, due to the erratic weather. “It will be June this year, it was may 17th last year, the year before it was April”

Creeping bent grass (foirin) andf other upland grasses like purple moore grass, works well with his lighter, hardy Galloway cattle, a breed especially suited to the outdoors and the hills.

The mat creeping bent grass forms stops these lighter animals from poaching the land. Condon sees creeping bent grass as a resilient grass, one suited to the challenges our ever more erratic climate is bringing.

While Galloways suit this weather, they will never get to the massive weights Continentals achieve. But then, they don't need the same levels of compound feed, imported hay to or heavy doses of Nitrogen on land that can't take it up when its too cold anyway.


Galloways are smaller, but have a distinct, grass fed taste that's all the more complex due to the range of grasses consumed, as well as its outdoors lifestyle.

“It would make a lot of sense to research these grasses, and to try to develop high end products off the types of animals that can thrive in these sorts of weather conditions” Condon thinks.

Technically, Ireland has a plan to increase the national herd. Yet hay is being brought in from France in yet another emergency farming situation. With climate change, weather extremes are now the norm.

The horsemeat scandal, the fodder crisis and climate change all point to the need for a different type of farming and food production. But as business-as-usual rolls relentlessly on, surely its time to initiate a long overdue debate on these matters.

(All photos taken on Joe Condon's farm and/or nearby commonage)

To read about the day John Feehan visited Joe Condon, click here and then here
Wednesday, 23 January 2013

ORGANICS IRELAND 2013: WHAT'S IN STORE?



What will 2013 hold for organic producers? Oliver Moore investigates

Horticulture has a lot of potential, indeed recent media reports put growth for some organic growers at 40% in 2012. This seems optimistic, especially with such poor and erratic weather in recent times.

“My main wish for 2013 is for a nice summer!” So says Jason Horner of the Organic Growers of Ireland, who are holding a conference in Birr in February. Horner, who grows in Clare, adds “An apprenticeship scheme would help the sector develop, but its been difficult to establish.”

There are reports that supermarkets are importing up to E10 million of veg from EU countries, so there are certainly import substitution opportunities. To change this, Horner points out “supermarkets would have to put in seed capital, sometimes even to buy farms and set people up, as they did in the UK 15-20 years ago” he said, adding that there was little sign of this at present.

John Liston, organic dairy farmer in Limerick tells me Irish organic milk producers will specialise in summer milk. “We don't have the scale to compete on Winter milk, but we can compete with the best in the world with summer milk off grass.”

The Irish Organic Milk Producers have developed their own organic cheddar cheese. This cheese is a traditional cheddar, made with unpasteurised milk in round wheels. It will also retail in 200, 250 and 400g packs, in a deli style paper. Export markets in the UK and Europe – Italy France and Germany in particular - will be a big focus for the Little Milk Company.

“We have 15 tonnes ready to go, at various levels of maturity, and we're making more all the time. We hope to sell 25-35 tonnes of cheese this year, double that next year, and after that who knows? Our farmers produce 5 million litres of milk, so the sky's the limit” says Conor Mulhall, General Manager of the company.

Tastings in Ireland, and with UK and German buyers have already been arranged, while Mulhall will be visiting BioFach in Germany in February to further develop contacts.

John Brennan of the Leitrim Organic Farmers Co-op finds reasons to be cheerful for organic beef and lamb. “Demand for organic beef is stronger than supply at present.” However “the quality of silage isn't great”. Slaney meats, to whom the Co-op send 30-50 animals per week for processing, now also take 36 month old animals at full organic premium. Up until recently, the premium was only paid for animals up to 30 months. 36 months suits slower growing, grass based systems with Continental crosses, according to Brennan.

However an issue is that “to increase beef availability, we need more stores and weanlings. A problem for the organic sector is that “some continental animals, weanlings or stores, are getting as much in conventional marts. So there are less in the organic system, especially in the south and south east where the are less dedicated organic marts. This means that finishers don't have animals to buy.”

Brennan has seen a progressive use of supports by the Department on occasion, through grant aid being targeted more at organic farmers who kept animals in the organic system. This should be continued, he feels.

“Last year was ok for lamb, we're reasonably hopeful that the hogget trade will be good. We have new entrants in sheep. There are no exact stats on the numbers of organic sheep in country, which there should be. At the same time, we know with these new people coming in, we do need to try to grow that market.”

Organic meat from further south tends to go through the Good Herdsman, who have developed strong markets in Europe, where organic sales are growing rapidly.

Pork and poultry remain difficult sectors to grow. Major pork producers Gold River farm, Wicklow, recently left the organic system, emphasising the matter. Many have argued for some sort of loose barn semi outdoors system in organic to adapt to the realities of the Irish weather.

More on this here soon