On Co Meath’s southern border, a stone’s throw from the Kildare village of Kilcock, lies Stuart Rogers’ 52ha holding. A fifth-generation farmer, Stuart’s father Tommy once milked a 20-cow dairy herd here, while also producing fruits, salads, vegetables and bedding plants from ¾ acre of glasshouses.
When Stuart, and his wife Aisling, took over in 2006, following his dad’s early retirement, he was still working off-farm and doing farm-contracting work, so his initial focus was to have an efficient farming system. With this in mind, he identified a niche market for species-rich hay for horses, at one point producing 150 acres of it, delivering it direct — with Jeep and trailer — to customers as far away as Cork.
Ultimately, however, the financials and logistics proved too challenging and, as his farming goals evolved, he transitioned to what is today a fully certified organic tillage and sheep operation.
Integrated system
The sheep flock consists of 130 Belclare ewes, producing organic lamb.
The sheep are integral to Stuart’s tillage system, helping recycle valuable nutrients: their droppings and wool are combined with straw to generate (anaerobically) compost, which he applies (at one to two tonnes per acre) to boost soil health. The sheep also help harvest cover crops, saving on mechanical mulching costs.
Stuart grows diverse crops, including a combicrop of peas, oats and barley, sold — and delivered in-person — to a small number of organic customers. It’s high-quality animal feed and in great demand thanks to the burgeoning organic sector, though he fears the “big operators” will likely muscle in at some point soon.
This year Stuart plans to produce oats for Flahavan’s, and also wheat, some of which he hopes to mill for flour for local customers, following a successful trial in 2024.
Last year he grew four to five acres of sunflowers, “mainly to build soil mycorrhiza”, but found that there was a demand for the flowering heads in local organic shops and markets, so he plans to grow more this year.
What makes Stuart’s diverse, organic system more unique — and challenging — is that he farms to a ‘biodynamic’ standard, certified by Demeter (named after the ancient Greek goddess of the harvest). Stuart dislikes terms like organic, regenerative and biodynamic as they pigeonhole farmers, whereas he feels every farm, farmer, and approach taken — including his — is ultimately bespoke, and dynamic.
Stuart arrived at his particular approach to farming after a long — and ongoing — learning journey which began with a newspaper article about using compost teas to replace chemical fertilisers.
His real ‘eureka’ moment, however, came in 2017 when a week-long soils course in Carlow “blew his mind” and stimulated a lasting obsession with soil health and nutrition.
Stuart Rogers at his south Co Meath farm he manages to a Biodynamic standard.
For Stuart, soil is the foundation for everything: healthier soils will produce better crops at lower cost over time, so he can “do less and deliver more”.
He builds soil biology using diverse cropping, applying composts and other bio-stimulants. He relies heavily on observation and intuition and strongly believes in taking responsibility when things go wrong and adapting accordingly.
He enjoys brainstorming ideas with like-minded farmers and was one of 12 participating farmers in the soils-focused Danú EIP.
Stuart is proud that his system, while unusual, is viable. This is largely down to his own hard work and innovation — the corollary being that his main viability challenges are his own limited time and energy.
To counter this, Stuart has adapted farm machinery to improve efficiency and availed of TAMS grants for sheep-handling units, his one-man operation relying on contractors only for harvesting and shearing.
Stuart appreciates the foundation that the farming life offers to his two children Grace and Kate, from growing and eating their own pigmeat, to milling their own flour.
While “other farmers may laugh”, Stuart feels that his profit margins, quality of life and sense of purpose, speak for themselves.
While he accepts he won’t get rich quick — at least compared with the many, lucrative offers of off-farm work — he gets a lot of personal satisfaction from farming, in spite of the “eternal struggles”. He relishes the freedom and purpose and summarises “this isn’t a job, this is my life”.
Land lessons
Working closely with nature as he does, Stuart admits to sometimes feeling ‘beaten down’ as a farmer, blamed for climate change and biodiversity loss. Government needs to appreciate the wider social, economic, health and educational benefits delivered by farming — it’s really way beyond the remit of one department (agriculture), he feels.
Society too needs to support farmers — local roads are nightmarishly busy with commuters, patience and respect for farming are eroding, as is people’s appreciation of the effort involved in producing, and benefits in consuming good food.
Stuart is a very tuned-in, versatile and capable farmer, a highly relatable exponent of what some consider to be the “dark art” of biodynamic farming. Looking ahead, Stuart’s admirable ambition is to produce more ‘nutritious, energetic’ food for people, and encapsulates this vision by quoting Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Learn more
For info on biodynamic farming, which strives to ‘put back more than it extracts’, see www.demeter.net
Top tips
Back yourself. Everything is possible, follow your gut and don’t mind what people say.
Farm facts
Name: Stuart Rogers.Farm type: tillage and sheep.Farm size: 52ha.Focus:to produce energetic and nutritious food for human consumption.Schemes: Organic Farming Scheme, TAMS.
On Co Meath’s southern border, a stone’s throw from the Kildare village of Kilcock, lies Stuart Rogers’ 52ha holding. A fifth-generation farmer, Stuart’s father Tommy once milked a 20-cow dairy herd here, while also producing fruits, salads, vegetables and bedding plants from ¾ acre of glasshouses.
When Stuart, and his wife Aisling, took over in 2006, following his dad’s early retirement, he was still working off-farm and doing farm-contracting work, so his initial focus was to have an efficient farming system. With this in mind, he identified a niche market for species-rich hay for horses, at one point producing 150 acres of it, delivering it direct — with Jeep and trailer — to customers as far away as Cork.
Ultimately, however, the financials and logistics proved too challenging and, as his farming goals evolved, he transitioned to what is today a fully certified organic tillage and sheep operation.
Integrated system
The sheep flock consists of 130 Belclare ewes, producing organic lamb.
The sheep are integral to Stuart’s tillage system, helping recycle valuable nutrients: their droppings and wool are combined with straw to generate (anaerobically) compost, which he applies (at one to two tonnes per acre) to boost soil health. The sheep also help harvest cover crops, saving on mechanical mulching costs.
Stuart grows diverse crops, including a combicrop of peas, oats and barley, sold — and delivered in-person — to a small number of organic customers. It’s high-quality animal feed and in great demand thanks to the burgeoning organic sector, though he fears the “big operators” will likely muscle in at some point soon.
This year Stuart plans to produce oats for Flahavan’s, and also wheat, some of which he hopes to mill for flour for local customers, following a successful trial in 2024.
Last year he grew four to five acres of sunflowers, “mainly to build soil mycorrhiza”, but found that there was a demand for the flowering heads in local organic shops and markets, so he plans to grow more this year.
What makes Stuart’s diverse, organic system more unique — and challenging — is that he farms to a ‘biodynamic’ standard, certified by Demeter (named after the ancient Greek goddess of the harvest). Stuart dislikes terms like organic, regenerative and biodynamic as they pigeonhole farmers, whereas he feels every farm, farmer, and approach taken — including his — is ultimately bespoke, and dynamic.
Stuart arrived at his particular approach to farming after a long — and ongoing — learning journey which began with a newspaper article about using compost teas to replace chemical fertilisers.
His real ‘eureka’ moment, however, came in 2017 when a week-long soils course in Carlow “blew his mind” and stimulated a lasting obsession with soil health and nutrition.
Stuart Rogers at his south Co Meath farm he manages to a Biodynamic standard.
For Stuart, soil is the foundation for everything: healthier soils will produce better crops at lower cost over time, so he can “do less and deliver more”.
He builds soil biology using diverse cropping, applying composts and other bio-stimulants. He relies heavily on observation and intuition and strongly believes in taking responsibility when things go wrong and adapting accordingly.
He enjoys brainstorming ideas with like-minded farmers and was one of 12 participating farmers in the soils-focused Danú EIP.
Stuart is proud that his system, while unusual, is viable. This is largely down to his own hard work and innovation — the corollary being that his main viability challenges are his own limited time and energy.
To counter this, Stuart has adapted farm machinery to improve efficiency and availed of TAMS grants for sheep-handling units, his one-man operation relying on contractors only for harvesting and shearing.
Stuart appreciates the foundation that the farming life offers to his two children Grace and Kate, from growing and eating their own pigmeat, to milling their own flour.
While “other farmers may laugh”, Stuart feels that his profit margins, quality of life and sense of purpose, speak for themselves.
While he accepts he won’t get rich quick — at least compared with the many, lucrative offers of off-farm work — he gets a lot of personal satisfaction from farming, in spite of the “eternal struggles”. He relishes the freedom and purpose and summarises “this isn’t a job, this is my life”.
Land lessons
Working closely with nature as he does, Stuart admits to sometimes feeling ‘beaten down’ as a farmer, blamed for climate change and biodiversity loss. Government needs to appreciate the wider social, economic, health and educational benefits delivered by farming — it’s really way beyond the remit of one department (agriculture), he feels.
Society too needs to support farmers — local roads are nightmarishly busy with commuters, patience and respect for farming are eroding, as is people’s appreciation of the effort involved in producing, and benefits in consuming good food.
Stuart is a very tuned-in, versatile and capable farmer, a highly relatable exponent of what some consider to be the “dark art” of biodynamic farming. Looking ahead, Stuart’s admirable ambition is to produce more ‘nutritious, energetic’ food for people, and encapsulates this vision by quoting Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Learn more
For info on biodynamic farming, which strives to ‘put back more than it extracts’, see www.demeter.net
Top tips
Back yourself. Everything is possible, follow your gut and don’t mind what people say.
Farm facts
Name: Stuart Rogers.Farm type: tillage and sheep.Farm size: 52ha.Focus:to produce energetic and nutritious food for human consumption.Schemes: Organic Farming Scheme, TAMS. 
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