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Bruce Irvine runs an organic farm on the north coast of Aberdeenshire alongside his parents, Aileen and Wilson.
The farm extends to 650 acres and carries 95 cows and 700 ewes. The farm grows 166 acres of crops with the remaining acreage in grass.
Converting to organic has been a recent development and this is the first year that produce can be sold as certified under the Scottish Organic Producers Association.
Calving profile
Suckler cows are split, with two-thirds calving in spring and the remainder being winter-calving. The majority of the herd is outwintered on kale and turnips.
Just the winter-calving cows and thin spring-calving cows are brought inside to ease of management and fed a silage and straw diet with 1kg/day of barley, plus minerals.
In the long term, the aim is to have all cows calving during March, but this will be a gradual move to manage finances.
Changing cattle breed
Cows are mainly Salers breeding and traditionally crossed to a Limousin bull. However, with organic concentrates costing more than double conventional ration prices, Bruce is moving towards finishing more cattle off grass.
To suit grass finishing with minimal feed input, cattle breeding is now using Stabiliser genetics with the purchase of two stock bulls.
“The last two bulls we bought were the dearest we have ever paid, but I was keen to get good genetics for the future of the herd,” said Bruce. “We chose them mainly on estimated breeding values (EBVs) and both bulls were within the top 5% of the breed.”
Functional cows
Bruce is also looking for an easy-calving cow which has the ability to gain plenty flesh at grass. As the farm is exposed, cows must be hardy to withstand the rain and wind.
Looking north, there is no land mass between the farm and the North Pole. “Some folk say we are the windiest place in Britain,” added Bruce.
Herd replacements are bred on farm and this policy will remain in place to produce cows suited to the environment. “The last breeding cow, or heifer, that came onto the farm was over 20 years ago”.
Marketing organic cattle
The first batch of finished organic cattle will be ready for sale next year. The aim is to sell animals at 18 to 20 months of age.
Growing cattle will be wintered indoors as weanlings before returning to grass for a second year next spring.
This year, Scottish organic R4L steers are typically £4.60/kg (€5.44/kg including VAT) which is 80p/kg (95c/kg) above conventional beef price.
Bruce sold some organic stores this year, but failed to realise any premium over conventional price. This has convinced him that the finished market is best outlet for the herd.
Winter fodder
Key to a successful cattle system under an organic system is utilising grass and homegrown forages.
The farm is growing 14 acres of kale, 22 acres of turnips and 90 acres of spring barley, which are used to reduce the cost of wintering cattle.
“When the cows are on the kale, they also get straw. Barley was cut for crimping, so the straw is slightly green and kept dry by wrapping.
“We have grown fodder crops for about 15 years to feed cows but, until recently, it has all been grown conventionally.
“This year, the weather provided favourable growing conditions and we have the one of the best kale crops ever grown on the farm.”
Planting
Working under organic restrictions, getting enough nitrogen applied and keeping weeds under control are crucial when establishing forage crops.
Nitrogen is supplied through farmyard manure from cattle bedding with purchased straw helping to increase potash availability in soils.
This year, kale was planted at the end of July after silage was harvested.
“We tried direct drilling, but couldn’t kill off the grass and we didn’t have time to create a stale seedbed, as every day sowing is delayed makes a difference to yield.”
Fodder turnips were sown in early May. To create a stale seedbed, Bruce used a spade roller three times with a break of one week between passes to allow weeds to germinate.
Grassland management
“We have used paddocks in the past and our average grazing park on the majority of the farm is eight acres.
“But we took on more land, which had bigger fields and poor fencing. So, at the moment, we are focusing on getting the boundaries securely fenced before we get going with more paddocks.
“To get the most from our grass, we will be moving to rotational grazing in the future which will involve electric fences and installing more water troughs.
“Grass swards have clover and we are relying on this to get nitrogen into the ground and drive grass growth.”
Sheep
The farm carried 1,000 ewes until the dry spring of 2018. “We really struggled for grass and didn’t want to go through that again so we cut back to 700 ewes.
“If the cropping continues to go well on the farm, we will cut ewe numbers back to 500. Ewe type is mostly Mules, but we are moving towards the Innovis Highlander composite breed, which we plan to lamb outside.
“We lamb 500 Mules inside from 7 April, then move on to the 200 Highlanders from 16 April. We use a mix of Berichon, Charollais and Highlander tups with all the lambs finished.”
Organic lambs sold this year averaged £4.70/kg (€5.57/kg) for an R3, which is a premium of around 50p/kg on conventional price, but this fluctuates during the year.
Organic
Bruce admits that going organic has not been without challenges. But steady progress is being made year on year.
“There is much more recordkeeping when going organic than expected,” said Bruce.
“Anyone thinking of converting must be prepared to keep good records as it is a must under the schemes.”
Medical restrictions
Organic livestock cannot be routinely treated for parasites or with antibiotics as with conventional systems.
“For worms, we take faecal egg counts to monitor burdens. We are allowed one routine wormer application per year per animal.
“Rotating grassland with fodder crops and arable helps break the life cycle of parasites. We have also added chicory into our grass mix as it is a natural wormer.
“Antibiotic use is severely restricted, so we cull hard and select breeding animals which are robust and give less bother.”
When it comes to getting advice, there is a good group of organic farmers located in the northern end of Aberdeenshire.
Members are keen to share their experiences and Bruce has found this group invaluable.
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