The recently formed Western Organic Producer Group will hold its inaugural sale of certified organic sheep on Sunday 23 August in Maam Cross Mart, Co Galway.

The sale, which starts at 12 noon (viewing 10am to 11.45am), has a good entry of Scottish Blackface and crossbred sheep with over 750 store lambs, 500 ewe lambs, 200 ewe hoggets and 100 breeding ewes entered.

Shane O’Haire, Teagasc adviser explains that the aim of the sale is twofold. The first is to offer over 50 members who have joined the producer group an opportunity to market bigger numbers of organic stock in one sale and thereby increase the attractiveness of the sale to potential customers. Similarly the fact that there are big sale numbers entered gives farmers looking to source organic sheep better choice to a wider array of genetics.

Mayo has the third-highest number of organic farming scheme participants, with figures heading for 500 farms while Galway has upwards of 400 farmers in the scheme.

Evident

Shane says: “There has been big buy-in to the new producer group as evident in the numbers entered. We went for a Sunday sale to suit part-time farmers and to avoid any crossover in sales – the second half of August onwards is peak activity in breeding sales and many group members are involved too in other breeding groups. There is room for each of these sales to coexist side-by-side and online sales platforms have opened up the opportunity for farmers who can’t make it to the mart to still compete.

“We advise that they register to bid via Marteye and contact the mart in advance to ensure everything is in order.”