Michael Holmes was the host farmer of the Teagasc Organic Lamb Finishing- From Farm to Fork event held on his farm in Mulranney, Co Mayo, organised by local organics advisor John Noonan.

Michael isn’t a sole entity regarding organics in his family, with three sons, a daughter and son-in-law all converts from conventional, with Michael describing it as “an ideal scheme for this end of the country’’.

Michael himself runs a hill flock consisting of Mayo Blackface ewes, though his family farm is a mix of hill and lowland ewes, with a display of lambs from each of the family being part of the drafting demo on the night.

Unlike many organic hill farmers, Michael finishes all lambs himself, with 100% of his lambs going to Irish Country Meats in Navan, with approximately 90% making the specifications regarding carcase weight for organic weight (18kg-21kg).

Weight gain from grass has been a key focus on the Holmes farm, limiting expensive concentrate use where possible.

Philip Creighton, research officer in Teagasc Athenry, presented the latest findings that year two of finishing trials in the Mellow Campus had revealed as part of the GROFarmS programme.

In it, Scottish Blackface male lambs were offered one of five diets post-weaning, comprising three indoor based treatments (plus concentrates) with two outdoor forage brassica treatments also included.

Creighton pointed that the organic trials followed on from over a decade of conventional hill lamb finishing research “to add value to lighter hill lambs where there isn’t a whole lot of options, with these lambs primarily sold as stores.’’

“In the conventional finishing trials, we would have looked at building lambs up to ad-lib concentrates; obviously in organics we have to keep a high percentage of forage in the diet [due to costs],’’ highlighted Creighton.

In the organic trials, three silage-based treatments were used; organic grass-based silage, organic red clover silage and a whole crop silage. In year one, the whole crop treatment was cereal based including barely, oats and peas sown straight, with Creigton pointing to the high straw content being a limiting factor in lamb performance.

In year two, a switch was made to a barley, oat and pea mix which was under sown with a red clover silage mix.

A target of 44kg+ with a suitable fat cover was set. Lamb performance over the first two years of the trials has been “variable but low’’. The performance of the lambs in the trials for year two is shown in table 1.

The addition of the red clover silage mix under sown in the whole crop still recorded poor levels of performance, with only a slight increase in performance recorded by the inclusion of the red clover silage mix being under sown, with Creighton highlighting that either mix was not suitable for lamb finishing.

“The reason we persisted with a whole crop treatment, and are doing it again this year, is that we wanted to be sure that there was no year effect.

“Year one there was some low dry matters and we were getting variable performances, year two we are still getting a consistent result that for finishing lambs this isn’t a runner.’’

As mentioned, a selection of lambs were present on the night, from smaller framed mountain ram lambs to finished lowland type lambs, all bred by the Holmes family.

Michael primarily targets finishing lambs off grass for reduced costs. Blackface ram lambs weighing 30.5kg on the night would “probably get it tight to finish off grass’’ according to Michael, with the lightest lambs present at the walk being 23.5kg, a lamb that can be finished in to 16-17kg but would require “grass and [concentrate] feed.”

Prior to running an exclusively organic system, Michael finished 700-800 conventional hill lambs purchased in the west of Ireland out of the shed annually for over 30 years.

Michael, along with other organic farmers present on the night, expressed their frustration regarding the minimum carcase weight of 18kg to James Smyth, general manager of Irish Country Meats.

Michael highlighted that not only was the weight limit a barrier for organic farmers finishing their own lambs, but that light store lambs were devalued by it as well.

“Some guy, from Laois or Offaly or Meath or wherever, an organic farmer, won’t end up buying them [lambs weighing 23.5kg] because it will cost him too much money and too much time.’’

Finding a market for lighter carcase hill lambs was pointed out as being “a work in progress’’ by ICM general manager James Smyth.

The seasonality of light lamb markets was highlighted as a major issue, with no specific customer requesting light lamb orders to be filled with organic lamb.

Markets within the EU and further afield for light lamb were being consistently explored, according to Smyth.

“We are very passionate about it. From a procurement point of view, we have a specific officer tasked with only dealing with organic livestock queries.’’

Transport was another key challenge highlighted by farmers present, with haulage available only every other week a barrier to farmers looking to finish their own organic lambs, with Smyth stating that this procurement officer would aid farmers in arranging transport.

“With the two plants licensed to kill and process [organic livestock] in Camolin and Navan, we have ample opportunity to deal with what is presented to us.’’

Organic bonuses were currently being paid by ICM for lambs weighing 17-22kgs, with lee-way given for lambs up to 23kg.

“Buyers and retailers will dictate the size of the cuts. Some lambs weighing 20kg may not meet the spec [of buyers]. In the first six months of 2025 versus 2026 we doubled our organic slaughter, so that’s a really positive story. We’re moving in the right direction’’

“The harsh reality is it’s difficult to go to these markets when we don’t know what’s coming.

“We have no idea whatsoever, even from a conventional point of view the accuracy of the flock size, and there is a lot of conversation out there as to what we are facing for the coming six months.

“From an organic perspective, when you are going with a specialised product you do need the information.

“There were periods in spring 2026 when we had little or no organic lamb on offer. We would have lost some of the markets due to that.’’

Inconsistency in quality and price were also challenges in marketing organic lamb this year.

Michael pointed to the high level of leakage of organic store lambs in to conventional farms as a worry to the future of the organic scheme.

“I think it is important that organic farmers would be fit to say that yes, we are selling some amount of lambs [as finished].

“It’s important for the scheme that nobody sticks a pin in the balloon and says ‘these farmers are farming organically, getting organic payments but they’re not selling in to the organic market.’’

Michael chooses to keep all ram lambs entire on the farm, something that stemmed from his days of finishing hundreds of lambs conventionally.

“A ram lamb will finish, but a whether lamb will fatten and stall.

“You could have a lovely whether lamb that will finish at 35-37kg and if you gave him all the meal in the co-op, he won’t get any fatter.

“The ram lamb will keep growing and keep putting on weight and will finish and put on big weight.’’

Smyth stated that ICM “had to cater with what they were presented with’’, though a preference for whether lambs and ewe lambs for the key retail markets.

“What we tend to do with the ram lambs in most instances where they are not being sold to the ethnic market is de bone and de fat them in to muscles or cap off rack in to markets that will accept that stronger taste.’’