“Between the level of sprays and fertiliser and all the inputs, it didn’t make any sense from an environmental and financial point of view”, said Donal Keane at a recent Teagasc organic beef and tillage walk held on his farm in Summerhill, Co Meath.

Starting their conversion in 2011, the Keane family farm gained full organic status two years later in 2013. Currently, the 58ha farm comprises of 38.7ha of grass and clover-grass swards, 15.3ha of tillage crops, 2ha of Christmas trees and the house and yard.

Donal Keane.

In terms of price incentives, organic farmers receive a subsidy of €170/ha up to the first 60ha and €30/ha thereafter. Organic produce also benefits from a price incentive, usually 20% above the conventional beef price, while cereals are sold on contract.

Livestock

The livestock system on the farm is a suckler-to-steer-beef system. The target number of suckler cows is 20, with the predominant breed being Angus and, more recently, Salers.

A further 40 weanlings are purchased from organic livestock farms each year to boost numbers. Steers and heifers are slaughtered between 25 and 30 months of age.

Donal explained that Angus was brought into the herd for two main reasons.

Firstly, they are easily calved, which reduces labour input. Secondly, their performance on the red clover-grass silage crop that is grown on the farm (see below) is much higher than continental breeds.

“We had a brilliant stock bull a few years ago but at the time we didn’t know much about replacement figures”, Donal explained.

“We kept a lot of heifers off him one year and when the calved down they hadn’t enough milk to make a cup of tea. We only realised after that he had low replacement stars and very high terminal stars.”

Currently, Donal is working towards building up a herd of high replacement index cows and running a terminal bull with them.

Table 1 details the beef calving statistics of the farm in 2018 and Table 2 outlines the slaughter performance in 2018.

Livestock are primarily finished off forage and sometimes cereals grown on farm.

“The cost of organic concentrate is over €500/t so we will only purchase it if we have to.”

In 2018, 5t of concentrate was purchased.

When asked about prices, Donal said “we would need to be getting around €5.30/kg at this time of year to make organic livestock pay. At the moment, prices are running about €0.50/kg below that though.”

Grass and clover

Crop rotation is key to successful organic farming. The rotation is the principal mechanism to provide nutrients to soil (in the absence of artificial fertiliser), as well as controlling pests and diseases.

Red cover is a vital part of the crop rotation on the Keane farm.

“Clover drives organic farming by fixing nitrogen into the soil. It prepares the soil for tillage crops”, Donal said.

The current plan involves a three-year fertility building phase using red clover, followed by cereals.

Red clover is not very suitable for grazing, however, and is in-turn used mainly in silage crops. It has a lifespan of two to four years. White clover is incorporated into the grazing swards instead.

Donal is currently growing 7.3ha (20ac) of a red clover-grass silage ley. The seed mix, when sown in 2018, was made up of an intermediate tetraploid perennial (3kg), a late diploid perennial (3kg) and a red clover variety called Milvus (5kg).

The plan is to take three to four cuts off the crop each year, with an expected yield of eight bales per acre or 14-16t DM/ha.

“I can’t understand why more conventional farmers aren’t using it”, said Donal.

According to Donal, and organic adviser Dan Clavin, the key with red clover silage is not to mow too low and not to wilt for too long.

“We wouldn’t mow any lower than two inches. Any lower will damage the crown of the plant and limit future growth. Excessive wilting also causes the leaves of the clover to fall off. These are what contains the protein.”

It is this protein that drives animal thrive, something that is crucial in organic livestock systems to replace expensive organic concentrates.

According to Clavin, research carried out in Teagasc Grange showed that animals fed on red clover-grass silage had the potential to gain 1kg/day, 0.4kg/day higher than perennial ryegrass silage.

Where red clover has the potential to cause problems is the delicacy of the plant. It was explained that the plant is very susceptible to machinery damage and even a heavy load has the potential to damage the plant for a number of years.

Furthermore, it can’t be over-sown due to its very small seed size and must therefore be sown in a conventional seedbed.

A crowd of 70-80 people attended the walk.

Tillage

Currently 15.3ha of the farm is devoted to cereals; 8ha of winter wheat and 7.3ha of spring oats.

Wheat

The winter wheat was sown in the first week of November at a seed rate of 90kg/ac. The variety was Celine. This wheat is grown on contract with Boortmalt with an expected base price of €470/t. The projected yield is 2.5t/ac and the variable costs to grow the crop are approximately €235/ac. Projected gross margin therefore stands at €940/ac, before bonuses.

Donal said: “The wheat goes to Mexico for distilling. It will more than likely end up making organic whiskey or tequila.”

Oats

The spring oats were sown in the first week of April at a seed rate of 90kg/ac. The variety was Husky. This wheat is grown on contract with Flahavins with an expected base price of €380/t. The projected yield is 2t/ac and the variable costs to grow the crop are approximately €235/ac. Projected gross margin therefore stands at €525/ac, before bonuses.

Speaking at the event, John Flahavan said: “Our supply of Irish organic oats is 30-40% behind demand. We have to import the deficit from western Europe. Anyone thinking of growing organic oats, we want them.”

Going forward

Donal explained that grassland is a vital part of the crop rotation and therefore livestock will always serve a purpose on the farm.

However, he said the long-term plan is to grow as much tillage on the as his cropping rotation will let him.

“There's about 140ac here and I think it would be very hard to grow any more than 80ac of cereals at any one time”, he said.