The head of the Department of Agriculture’s organic unit Jack Nolan has said that he does not agree with the perception that converting to organics means that stocking rates must fall.

The majority of the country’s livestock are kept on only one third of farms, leaving room for the remainder to grow sufficient quantities of forage without chemical inputs when management is right, according to Nolan.

He was speaking at the annual Energy and Farm Diversification Show in Gurteen Agricultural College on Thursday.

Nolan stated that recent organic farm walks have shown profitability figures above the national farm survey average even before Organic Farming Scheme top-up payments are added to the bottom line.

Management

Practices used by successful organic farmers, such as the incorporation of clover into swards and growing red cover silage, are already good practice on conventional farms, Nolan pointed out.

“Look at the national farm survey and the profitability when you are doing your accounts for October and then look at organic farming, see if there is something there for you,” he told farmers.

“Because everything the lads have talked about is good farming practice. There is schemes there for red clover, multi-species, combi crops, for soil sampling.

“Half the soils in Ireland are nutrient deficient at the moment. We don’t put out enough lime, we had a scheme [but] it fell back below 1m tonnes again last year, we should be putting out 1.5m tonnes

“These are very basic things that anyone should be doing whether you are organic or not, so I don’t buy into this thing where you have to cut stock on an organic farm either.”

Two-thirds of livestock on one-third of farms

There may be some farms quite highly stocked which would not be able to sustain stocking rates at their current levels under organics, but these represent a minority of farms, Nolan said.

“Two-thirds of the livestock in Ireland are on one-third of the farms, so two-thirds of the farms in Ireland could easily grow enough grass for the amount of cattle and sheep that are out there,” the official continued.

“What is the challenge then? Well, I think a lot of it is in people’s minds. That we have been conditioned that we have to buy fertiliser every year, we have to buy spray.”