Andrew McShea from Ballyshannon organised an organic reseeding demonstration last week on the farm of Johnny Patterson in Donegal Town.

He invited myself and some of my colleagues from Inishowen Co-op to the demonstration.

The event was to showcase the Erth seeding machine and get some good useful information to organic farmers around grass reseeding.

Inishowen Co-op supplied the organic grass seed and speakers on the night included myself, Andrew McShea, Denis Madigan from Erth Engineering, Kevin McMenamin from Teagasc and Eoin Gallagher, agricultural consultant.

I don’t proclaim to be an expert in organics, farm from it in fact, but the basic principles of obtaining a successful reseed in organics are no different from that of conventional farming and, as covered by Kevin McMenamin, soil fertility is key.

Soil fertility

The importance of starting with a soil sample cannot be over emphasised. Knowing where your starting point is so that you can move on from there is vital. In conventional farming, if soil phosphorus or potassium is low, it’s very easy to lash on some 10.10.20.

The organic farmer does not have this luxury, but there are things that he or she can use.

It’s important to make the best use of slurry and farm yard manure, be that the farmers own or imported.

Also, things like rock phosphate are also allowed in organics, making good use of clover, both red and white and of course, sometimes the best fertiliser of all, good old ground limestone.

Whilst it is more difficult for an organic farmer to raise their phosphorus and potassium levels, the off-takes in organics won’t be as high either, so maintenance may not be as difficult as one first expects.

I suppose the main point to get across is, spending money reseeding a field without feeding the seed, is a bit like trying to run an engine without diesel, it simply won’t work, and within a very short space of time the field will be back to where it was before you reseeded it.

Machinery grants

There was a range of machinery on show on the night too and Eoin Gallagher talked about the various TAMS grant options available to both organic and none organic farmers alike.

Things like bales shears are 60% grant aided to everyone under the farm safety scheme, and front loaders and disc mowers are 60% grant aided to organic farmers.

I’m seriously wondering would it be worth my while going organic for five years just to get a new mower.