The profitability of organic farming compares favourably to the margins seen on conventional beef, sheep and tillage farms, according to the head of the Department of Agriculture’s organic unit Jack Nolan.

The Department official stated that this probability is a key pull factor enticing many farmers to convert to organics and enter the Organic Farming Scheme.

There are over 5,000 farmers partaking in the scheme, which is due to reopen for applications later this year, but some farmers still have concerns with conversion, Nolan said.

“Most times when you open the paper, you see negativity about agriculture, a fall in prices. Yet we keep doing the same thing year after year and why is that?” he asked at the Energy and Diversification Show in Gurteen Agricultural College on Thursday.

“What are we caught in and where does the criticism of organic agriculture come from. Where is the issue? 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, we have to have a pasture that whether it produces or is profitable or not, is perfect when the neighbour looks in over the ditch.”

Correct management

Nolan said that many farmers do not need to drop stocking rate when converting if they get management correct in areas like clover, grassland management and soil sampling.

“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.”

Organic tillage and sheep farmer Ross Jackson from north Tipperary echoed Nolan’s comments on organic margins and the risk associated with converting.

“When I was thinking about going in, I was humming and hawing, sitting on the fence and wondering if it was a big risk,” Jackson commented.

“There is absolutely no risk in going into organic farming. You are not spending a fortune on anything. It’s not like going into dairy and putting in a big milking parlour.

“Five years goes around very quick and it is like the ACRES scheme.

“I don’t know of anyone who went into organics for five years and then pulled out again. There’s one reason they didn’t pull out and that’s because they are making money from it.”