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Ken Gill is BETTER farm’s first organic beef producer.
He runs a steer beef enterprise on 95ha near Clonbollogue, Co Offaly. His 70 cows calve in the autumn and we touched base with him this week to see how it was progressing.
Listen to “Organic BETTER farmer Ken Gill” on Spreaker.
“We had 50 calve in the month of August, which was great. I now have 14 left altogether – things are good and tight. I lost one premature calf from a heifer – he never stood up. We have had a set of twins though, so I’m still at a calf per cow, thus far. There was one big pull too. The calf’s legs were coming wrong and the cow had more or less given up trying to calve herself. I got the vet out to straighten things and a big effort followed. The calf got sick since and has had a couple of vet visits but he’s doing better now.
Sufficient grass
Ken is in an interesting position now in that he must try and ensure that he has enough grass for the back end, without being able to spread any nitrogen fertiliser.
The fact that he is autumn calving means that he can close up his farm at a lighter cover at housing time as his demand for grass in the spring is low relative to a conventional spring-calver.
What will be important for Ken is that he is strategic with his closing sequence, such that calves will be able to creep out from the sheds to good covers of grass early in the new year.
New building
Ken has recently erected a roof over an existing 60ft x 60ft concrete slab that adjoins his main shed. This will principally act as a creep area for his calves this winter, getting them away from cows into a better ventilated, cleaner area.
Tillage
Ken grows organic oats, which are typically sold to Flahavan’s, as well as a pea-barley combi mixture that he had planned to keep as a concentrate feed. Any meals on an organic farm must have come from organic tillage operations and can typically cost in excess of €500/t.
However, while he successfully got his oats in, he has been unable to get the combi crop and now faces the prospect of being forced to wholecrop.
Ken also has 12 acres of turnips, rape and kale, which he plants annually as part of his organic rotation. Weather dependent, it should carry 60 bullocks for the month of November.
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