Based in Mountnugent, Co Cavan, Richard runs a large 300-acre family farm which has beef, sheep, turkey and tillage enterprises. After a two-year process to become certified, the farm has now been fully organic for over seven years. This was not a decision to be made lightly, but he is now starting to see the benefits.

What are the differences between organic and conventional farming?

  • No chemical fertilisers
  • No pesticides
  • More regulations
  • Increased animal welfare

    • “You can’t use any chemical fertilisers, sprays, or anything like that. You save money because those huge inputs are now extracted out of the system,” said Richard.

    There’s an increased demand across Europe for organic produce, but only 6% of farmland in the average European country is organic and this drops to only 2% in Ireland.

    How can you recognise organic?

  • Have to have EU leaf organic logo
  • Must have EU certification number

    • What are the benefits of organic farming?

  • Increased incentives
  • Higher payments per hectare
  • Higher payments for red clover
  • Automatically qualify for greening
  • 40% of investment in grant form

    • Watch Peter Young interview Richard on his farm below as part of Agri Aware's series of video on CAP.