Organic farmers John and Jonathan Carson grow impressive swards of red clover on their organic beef farm near Downpatrick in east Down. They utilise them fully by both cutting and grazing.

At an Ulster Grassland Society (UGS) farm walk last week, members saw 26 of this year’s spring-born suckled calves, recently weaned off the cows and around 280kg to 300kg weight, grazing a very strong stand of red clover with 50% to 60% clover content.

Grazing is controlled by mains electric fences and the calves are allocated a block of forage sufficient for one day to leave the block completely grazed off after 24 hours.

Grazing such a profuse sward of red clover is not common for most farmers due to a fear of problems with bloat. However, bloat is not a problem on the Carson farm. The cattle are used to grazing white clover swards and moving to red clover swards after weaning causes no issues.

Productive

The sward being grazed has already had a productive season. In the spring, it was grazed by last year’s calves from mid-February to mid-March. A cut of silage yielding 14 round bales per acre was taken at the end of May. A second cut, yielding 10 round bales per acre, was taken on 20 July.

With strong regrowth since then, the six-acre field will graze the 26 weaned calves until the beginning of October. As an organic farm, all of this growth is, of course, achieved without the use of artificial fertilizers.

The seed rate of the sward was 3kg of red clover, 0.5kg of a large leaf white clover and 10kg of a hybrid perennial ryegrass per acre established last year by undersowing into an oat crop. It is expected to have a productive life of four years. In year four, more red clover and grass can be stitched in to prolong productive life by another two years.

Price

For organic production, a higher beef price is generally required to cover the higher costs of production.

Profitability in 2013/14 benefited from an organic beef price around 500p/kg for R grades (from ABP in Newry for a Sainsbury supermarket contract).

Gross margin per cow in 2013/14 was £1,322 per cow, which compares very favourably with the CAFRE benchmark average for conventional beef farmers of £488/cow.

However, in the current year, organic beef prices have fallen to around 400p/kg and margins are expected to be considerably lower.

Like conventional beef farmers, the organic sector needs a price increase to maintain margins at a profitable level.