A feed survey carried out by the Department of Agriculture’s organic unit shows that in excess of 50,000t of feed is required this winter to satisfy the demands of livestock on holdings farming organically or in conversion. This figure is predicted to increase again in 2025, going by recent trends of livestock farmers dominating entry to the scheme.

Table 1 details the breakdown in Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) participants by sector. As can be quickly seen, some 96% of participants comprise cattle or sheep enterprises as their main farming system, with the percentage of tillage farmers in the scheme diluted and reducing from 13% in spring 2022 to just 4% in 2023.

Table 2 details tillage crop types planted in 2024, with just over 5,356ha of ground under oats, barley, wheat or protein crops. Improving the sustainability of feed produced and increasing domestic production will not only require a significant increase in tillage participants, it will also require livestock enterprises to return to more traditional farming practices and, where feasible, embrace mixed cropping on their farms to produce their own protein source/grain.

There is also scope for specialist operators to avail of growing demand for organic oats, with reports indicating Flahavan’s is looking to double the volume of grain that it handles.

The company expressed its desire to enter into agreements with significantly more growers at Tuesday night’s Flahavan’s Organic Oats Growing Seminar. The base price for organic oats in 2024 was in the region of €410/t.

Organics deadline

The deadline for farmers to apply for the 2024 intake to the OFS is approaching fast on Friday 29 November. An additional €10m in funding was allocated to the OFS in Budget 2025, bringing the total to some €67m for 2025.

Going on the average size of the 5,000 farmers already participating (average payment of circa €12,000) in the OFS, this level of funding should allow in the region of 800 to 1,000 more farmers to join the scheme in 2025.

Reports indicate that there is a strong level of interest again this year and that this number of places is likely to be filled.

If the area of lands entering in to the scheme exceeds funding available, resulting in the scheme being oversubscribed, then ranking and selection criteria will be used. This will favour horticulture producers first, followed by dairy and tillage farmers.

The main element in ranking cattle and sheep enterprises will be the farm’s stocking rate.

Scheme metrics

The massive jump in participation in recent years has been underpinned by a number of factors with the driving force being highly attractive payments.

Table 3 details payment rates across the four farming systems. The rates are €100/ha to €150/ha higher for livestock systems compared to the previous OFS, €20/ha to €70/ha higher for tillage enterprises and up to €500/ha higher for horticulture.

The OFS is also the only scheme in operation which has a participation payment aimed at covering costs incurred in joining the scheme, such as advisory/consultancy and veterinary fees.

The lump sum payment for year one is €2,000 per applicant, reducing to €1,400 per annum for the remainder of the contract.

In addition to higher payment rates, organic farmers are also eligible for 60% grant aid under the TAMS On-Farm Capital Investment Scheme.

A change of significant note, which has opened the scheme up to farmers with more extensive systems, has been the reduction in the minimum stocking rate from 0.5LU/ha to a minimum of 0.1LU/ha over the 12-month calendar period. This change opened up the opportunity of joining organics for a large cohort of farmers with extensive production systems and/or farming on more marginal type land or hill/mountain areas.

Application process

Farmers interested in joining the scheme need to act fast to ensure they can submit an application by 29 November. Farmers must be registered with and certified by one of two organic control bodies. The two Organic Control Bodies are: Irish Organic Association (info@irishoa.ie – 090 6433680) and Organic Trust CLG (info@organictrust.ie – 045 882377).

A conversion plan must be prepared and submitted to whichever certification body you select. The conversion plan can be prepared by an applicant or an adviser working on their behalf.

An animal health plan must also be prepared and signed off on by a veterinary practitioner. Importantly, the application process to join the scheme must be submitted via the Department’s agfood.ie portal.