organic farming

While that doesn’t surprise me it’s a mis-interpretation of the regulations that you see respeated over and over on the like of Agriland, teagasc etc.

Price of straw has gone nuts. €100 for a 8X4X3 square bale in Ennis this morning. All rounds sold out at €50, most of it was well weathered wheaten straw. No Barley straw to be got for any money.

No. It used to be ok to put a skim of concrete on slats and bed them but not any more.

Supposed to be starting next week.

I guess it would depend on how many join it this time round. Might be more activity on here then.

where do people pick up organic meal for cattle, if ye are feeding any. €22 here in the co op for bags and I’m sick of them, was hoping to get a 1/2 tonne which might work out cheaper but can’t find anywhere online.

Irish Organic Feeds, 0876158547, based in Cork TMK. Have'nt used any up till now.

Many of the innovations on pasture management etc, begin life in the organic/regenerative/biological sector. Good place to keep an eye on such, even if you don't farm with these methods, specifically.

Might be a dear itch you have. Weeds perform differently in organic soils, eg docks and nettles will be reduced as the soil fertility reduces. Docks that don't get inorganic N are not bitter and cattle will eat them. Go and visit a few organic farms walks next year and see could you live with the vista.

Thinking of going organic here - possibly applying next year or the year after. Have around 15 suckler cows on 60 acres - mixed land. Big stumbling block at the moment is I've no slatted house so I'd need to invest in a 2 or 3 bay one next year - should be able to work it around an existing hay barn/small shed to allow for the lie back area required there.

For silage though would anyone have a rough idea how many less bales you'd get per acre with no fertilizer and just slurry and would there be much of a longer time needed to have the silage fields closed? For example, I reseeded 6 acres this year so, with fertilizer I'd expect 10 to 12 bales per acre off it next year but if I was in organics roughly what should I expect off it?

Thanks.

Could you put couple of acres into red clover and just use that for silage and don’t graze it, be surprised what get off it

Don't think so really at the moment.

Fair enough. Another option would be to cut numbers and out winter cattle but this depends on land type etc.

Also you can take in cattle slurry from neighboring farms which could help.

Drilling in oats with red clover is an option too in the sod.

I hear this being said a lot by non-organic farmers.

Care to explain your theory as to why that might be?

I put out a tank of slurry (from an organic cattle farm) last May that had €4000 worth of ration gone into it...

It sure grew my organic silage..

My own cows don't get meal..

I watered up that slurry to make enough out of it, and caught the last day of rain before the drought we got in May until June 5th or so. If I hadn't, it would have been in the silage as a dried out crust.

Watery slurry goes down quicker and gets to work rather than sitting on top losing nutrients to the air.

This all assumes you're spreading lightly and only once or twice a year, not laying down worm killing quantities.

2024 !

Would make sense, thty do want to get the conversion process going quickly to fill the targets they set for themselves.