organic farming

Yet today we have the dairy heroes going nuts over a 12% reduction in a derogation from best practice...

A DEROGATION..... it's like they don't understand the meaning of the word.

If they dealt with their addiction to the crack cocaine that is synthetic fertiliser there wouldn't be any derogation needed.

Articles like this whilst ostensibly hopeful ignore the reality that the most damaged soils will never be repaired because their owners are caught in a vicious circle of production at minimum cost.

Nobody wants to pay the real price of food though so no real hope.

I see Gerry Boyle of Teasgasc fame was still pushing the nonsense about production and chem fert reduction recently🙄

Derogation from stocking rate.

It's not Derogation to spread fertiliser.

If it was Derogation to spread fertiliser I wouldn't be in derogation.

There's tillage guys spreading 200 units N /acre and not a derogation amongst them.

I'm way below most non derogation farmers in fert use.

You're getting it now.

Because it's leached out. There's feck all life in the ground too. Life is the carbon, is the nutrients, are the gofors for the plant roots to find the nutrients. When it's not there, the nutrients go.

It has to be farmed sympathetically to life to retain the nutrients.

Would it be fair to say that better relationships between tillage and dairy could address this issue in terms of the use of excess slurry, fym etc. and cutting down on the bagged stuff??

See above. It's always nuanced.

Not sure if Leonardite or Leonardite fertiliser is available in Ireland, it should help. Your post shows up the damage that can be done to soil. The soil microbiology is very complex and we haven't taken cognisance of it over the last 70 years.

I know an organic farmer that would be at that level if allowed. All home produced feed.

They rely on protein crops, multispecies swards, and tilling.

Cows out in January too.

The main thing is look at what other countries eg Austria, Denmark, are doing in this area and don't try an reinvent the wheel. Use of organic products in school meals and any public body canteens. The whole baby food market, where the adults are quite sensitive to what they are feeding their young child.

I was invited over to look at the mss by the manager a good while back.

I brought the spade with me. I only really did so when a regen sort of agronomist visited here and had his spade with him to have a look.

The mss ground was like walking on a parlour mat. The spade went in like butter. It's a bit sandy feeling in the profile.

If you're in that area go back to Poulpeasty. It's all really top class grazing land. Anywhere where there was old community milk co-ops you know it's naturally good land. There's veins of basalt rock under some and if it's not too close to the surface it's really good land. Some of the most prosperous dairy farms you'll see in the area have basalt underlying their land.

Edit: Aidan O Brien horse trainer Ballydoyle, Coolmore. Came from Poulpeasty. And further useless trivia Walter O Brien a self proclaimed genius of Scorpion 🇺🇸 drama series came from further along the road. Both from farms.

I applied around the same time and had inspection 3 January with IOA. Now I was one of the first to apply. I had registered with the body and had paperwork done before the agrifood but ever opened etc.

SNM as Nicole Masters says if an advisor calls to your farm without a spade to dig a hole, go and look for a new advisor.

The agricultural shows across the country offers a unique intersection between farming and non farmers. An organic roadshow with local produce could tour the shows.

Inspection next week, yikes. Hate the thought, but ok once I get into the books over the weekend. Have bad memories of a Dept of Ag Inspection by a blackguard 30 years ago.

Will the Organic Scheme be opening again this year do ye think?

Im thinking of entering.....

Just got an email about this, all organic operators will get the same email id reckon. A good idea for sure, organic farmer definitely need a sales network like this but for it to work it will need plenty of active users. The certification bodies already post ads for stock for sale but hopefully this will have a wider reach. Getting an official launch at the ploughing this week apparently.

Site looks ok, it functions similar to the likes of DungDeal with the lists and sections. I take it as a positive plus it's free so what have you to loose by sticking an ad up for stock that you'll be selling

I got one to buy 2 heifers for breeding. Didn’t buy yet and not sure I will even. Wasn’t too hard to get it. Only in conversion.

It will be a lot harder get a derogation for heifers from now on and once the volume of derogations granted goes down it will be used as a stick to abolish the derogation altogether.

Would I be right in saying it can only be fully converted or in conversation farmers that can use the service? Even so, it will be tough for the volume of sales here to be higher than DD due to its sheer volume of users in general. I'm not sure about it being a lot harder, definitely possible though of organic breeding heifers are easier to source. Are you speculating about this or do you know for sure?

Organic trust emailed me my own login for it a few days ago so didn't have to register. Like everything, I'm sure it'll have a few teething problems, but hopefully it'll be successful.

See the EU on about a slump in organic sales across the board, and organic farmers selling products at the same prices as conventional. Can't say I'm surprised.

Its a bit of a simplistic assessment in that conventional beef and lamb sales have also contracted significantly in that time across the EU and UK. Current Milk Price speaks too to such trends. Indeed in the latter lamb consumption is now barely half of what it was just 15 years ago. At least Organics is not subject to increasing costs in inputs like Chem fert etc.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/24/uk-meat-consumption-lowest-level-since-record-began-data-reveal#:~:text=That%20was%20down%20from%20976g,11%25%20in%20the%20past%20decade.