Watch and listen: organic beef a first for BETTER farm

With the modern consumer becoming more in tune to how their food is produced, the BETTER farm beef programme has taken a step into previously uncharted territory and brought an organic beef producer on board.

Ken Gill farms 95ha, laid out in one block, near Clonbollogue in Co Offaly. He runs a 70-cow suckler beef operation, bringing all progeny to slaughter. The herd calves in 10 weeks in the autumn from early-August. The principal reason for his calving date is to take pressure off the grazing block in the spring – Ken cannot rely on synthetic fertiliser to drive early grass growth in the way conventional producers can.

Contrary to what might be expected, Limousin genetics predominate in Ken’s herd and there is good size in his cows.

“I was lucky enough to have a top-class Limousin stock bull (by Sleedagh Simpson) some years ago and there are a lot of his daughters (18) in the herd now,” Ken said.

Listen to Ken in our podcast below:

Ken breeds two-thirds of his main herd to AI and a five-star replacement Angus bull runs with the balance and his heifers. This winter, he used common sires like Lisnacrann Fifty Cent (SI), Rio (SA), Castleview Gazelle (LM), Cornamuckla Lord Hardy (AA) and Solpoll 1 Kentucky Kid (HE) – all of which hold five stars on the replacement index too.

Bullocks go for slaughter, from grass in the back end at around 26 months of age. Beef heifers go slightly earlier at two years of age. To complement his own stock, Ken typically buys in weanlings or stores at special organic sales. This year he purchased 30 yearlings at a special organic sale in Kilmallock mart.

In 2016, Ken’s bullocks came in at carcase weights of 356kg (R+, 3+), with his heifers weighing 307kg (R=, 3+). Scheme-based bonuses are such that Ken’s carcase beef price runs around 15-20% ahead of conventional prices. His carcases do not qualify for any breed bonuses (Angus/Hereford), but he has his reasons for using them.

“Obviously being an autumn calver, I’m trying to finish cattle from grass with minimal meal inputs – I have to, given that organic-spec concentrates cost in excess of €500/t. The early maturing breeds give me that easy-fleshing ability. Then you have the obvious benefits around calving ease and calf vigour that are so important in suckling. However, my current worry is that my weights might suffer as more early-maturing genetics creep into the herd – a lot of my heifers this year are Angus and Hereford. This year I’m going to use a lot of Simmental to keep that size in the cow.”

Integration

Like most large-scale organic beef operations, Ken’s grassland is just one part of the puzzle. In order to fix atmospheric nitrogen, keep the soil rejuvenated, minimise the need for expensive bought-in feeds, produce organic-spec straw and combat weeds, Ken grows crops of red clover, pea/barley mixture and oats, on top of his grass/white clover grazing swards.

“The red clover is gives me a high-protein (16-18%) feed that, when offered alone, will provide more-than adequate nutrition for my yearlings in the winter. We’re growing 12 acres of it here at the moment. You get three cuts a year and should be targeting 25 bales/acre in total. We’re not just hitting this at the moment, probably because my soil P and K indexes aren’t great – a common problem in organics as you can appreciate.

All organic cattle must have access to a straw bedded area. Ken has slatted pens with straw lie-backs and so his slurry and dung are crucial weapons in his soil fertility arsenal. He is also permitted to import dairy sludge and use certain mineral fertilisers when the need arises, such as ground phosphate.

Ken’s pea/barley combi-crop will be used to supplement his youngstock, any late-finishing stock and his cows during the winter. He fed around 0.5t of bought-in (€530/t) concentrate feed/cow unit (including progeny) in 2016 and really needs to look at reducing this going forward. When we visited in early-July, the pea/barley mix was on track to deliver yields of around 2t/acre on 12 acres, almost completely eliminating the need for him to buy-in concentrate feed.

After a big empty and culling rates in 2016, Ken needs to place a greater focus on his cows during the winter period, when energy intake is crucial for driving calf weight gain and establishing pregnancies. Nutrition here is crucial and Ken now knows that he must strive to make top-quality grass silage and avoid this energy coming from meals – an expensive practice for someone paying €200/t, let alone €500. Indeed, silage quality is one of the cornerstones of any autumn-calving system – organic or conventional. The combicrop and red clover will give him options in this regard, but he is actively making grass silage bales as well, both for winter fodder and grassland management purposes. Most of Ken’s 25 acres of organic oats will go to Flahavan’s, though he plans to retain some for feeding to cattle. He expects around 2t/acre yields.

An interesting aspect of Ken’s rotation is a rape/kale/turnip mixture that he sowed at ploughing in the autumn.

“In organics you don’t just plough and sow your crop in directly, generally speaking. I put in what turned out a really nice crop of rape/kale/turnip to break up the sod. This is fed in November via rotational grazing and it means that you have cattle thriving, outside, late in the year. It proves a good precursor for my peas and barley which I sow in the spring after ploughing again. I try to always put the mixture in between grass and tillage crops,” Ken said.