organic farming

Re the example 60 acre being organic and being compatible with acres ,its possible to draw the max of 7k plus in general scheme by taking the linear options with minimum deduction eg 200 euro from organic payment .i detailed this some time back in either this tread or the acres thread.The costs assosiated with acres are there regardless whether you are in organic scheme or not.

I do believe carbon farming will be a thing paid for in the future. Even Head of Teagasc Prof Frank O'Mara mentioned it. But I look too far ahead sometimes. Organic beef, chicken, pig meat, cereals, vegetables and fruit should all be niche, high end products. Sadly, looks like the supermarkets here and abroad are the main route to market and they'll only drive product one way.

There's already a quasi system of carbon "farming" except the farming is gone out of it as are the farmers.

Didn't dublin county council sell land or the carbon rights of Mountain land to a Web based multinational.

Farmers and farming will left aside in the carbon bs. Multinationals will simply buy land with the sole purpose of abandonment to nature. People and farmers are being wound that this is a positive. Naturalists are rubbing their hands at glee for consultancy jobs from the Multinationals. To sit in vans on site and claim an income.

For 'farmers' to welcome this leads me to believe they haven't much experience in the carbon side of farming.

Question to all.

What is the preferred level % of Organic matter in soil to farm while having peak production in grass, cereals or veg?

What is a higher level % of Organic matter that production drops off?

What is the mathematical conversion rate that laboratories use for soil Organic matter to carbon?

With 35/40% of the food production of the land not ending up being consumed, there is plenty room to feed many million more. Producing more doesn't increase the farmer margin, but uses a lot extra inputs.

I don't believe the organics are encouraging high yields or increasing productivity. I believe it's a different way of looking at things.

Possibly we should look at what we need to get out of our farms and see which process fits. For myself it's biodiversity, soil health , animal health, no chemicals, less pollution, less machinery, less risk, better wildlife, healthier animals and humans. I don't feel that I need to calculate the percentage of organic matter in the soil to achieve that,I should see it with my eyes.

Ah jaysus is this thread going to deteriorate into something akin to the dairy chit chat thread where there is constant sniping back and forth over which type of cow/system is better. Can people accept that a particular system may suit them but not a different one and just move on.

We are not in organics as it's too restrictive for our system but I appreciate other farmers converting to Organic status if that suits their system and posting their experiences. We should all learn from reading posts on F&F and take bits out to suit our own enterprises.

How do you learn Base. But by asking questions. It's the same in the dairy thread. They all learn from one another. You don't learn if you think your system is 100% with no feedback on the system or don't think it needs explaining.

I asked a poster how long they were organic as they seemed all the joys of spring being a new entrant from their entrant course. I never got an answer how long they were either way. It's their choice to answer or not. But we're all posters here and we can still ask questions. It's not sniping to ask. It is a forum.

Are you sure about that?

A farmer friend who had a commercial calf/beef farm along with three or four poultry rearing houses has converted to organics recently. He quit the cattle and focused on the poultry side of the farm.

Some interesting contributions. I'm officially organic since 2019. However I was farming part of my farm organically for many years before that, not that it matters, we are all equal in my view. It's a pity if the small scale egg producers are under pressure. I understand the bird flu lockdown, all free range egg producers are affected by this.

The majority of increased production has been down to genetic improvement not artificial inputs. Of course all the cos supplying those products claim its their product. One is always looking for an extra margin. For those who do cereals, heritage crops are in demand by bakeries. Lower yield, higher margin.

I don't know how many he has.

I certainly wouldn't be near a margain of 300 a year per animal. But have averaged 260 head past 5 years. But agree biggest issue i have now is sourcing stock. Feed,bedding, sheds all ok but such a small market makes it difficult to get stock. Look at ads on DD already looking for stock. Have 2 yrs left in my contract and its the above reason i may have to leave..

Google sheets might easier to use than excel blue, it saves everything automatically and I found it a bit easier to use than excel myself.

Conventional stock can absolutely be farmed organically, though they won't get certified, all of their progeny will be though once the farm is out of conversion.

So say a herd of 20 conventional cows with one bull go into conversion, all going well they'll all have 20 fully organic calves so no need to buy anything.

In terms of selling, organic farmers have access to a wider market than conventional farmers simply because they have access to both markets.

Now in saying all that, the lad looking for the easy money that wants to buy in a few bits of organic stock to graze for the summer will likely struggle to source stock.