In an especially windy hill in south west Cork, an unusual herd of cattle is farmed by a colourful couple.
Clare and Steve Collins have a suckler herd of Dexter cattle; 26 cows, 24 calves, 4 bulls and 5 steers near Kealkill (off the N71 between Glengarrif and Bantry) in Cork.
They joined the Organic Farming Scheme this year, and will be full symbol organic in 2012.
�These small animals finish quicker and are extremely thrifty and good on soft mountain or boggy ground.� according to Steve.
Their pure-breed, pedigree Dexter cattle graze year round on their 57 hectares. At present, they take calves from birth to either finished steers or breeding heifers for sale. �We aim to have April and May calving, finishing on grass in the autumn at approximately thirty months� he tells me.
Grazing quality is mixed, with some areas rough and upland heath. Soil fertility has been maintained with calcified seaweed, rotational grazing and clover.
They also use a grazing rotation system to turn the mountain into grazing land. A four acre area of rough mountain grazing is selected each year for feeding and within this area, the feeders and troughs are moved daily; this avoids poaching of the land.
By the end of the winter, the herd have thoroughly manured the entire four acre area which is then harrowed, limed and seeded in the spring, so that the mountain is converted to pasture. This is gradually increasing the pasture area of the holding.
They also carry three rotating pigs, which renovate pasture. Weeds are controlled by extensive close grazing, topping and spring tine harrowing.
When it comes to producing beef, the couple can draw on an interesting nutritional background.
Not only is Steve an MD, he is an MD with nutritional expertise of international standing. His research has been published in Nature Medicine and the Lancet.
Steve has been instrumental in revolutionizing the way malnutrition is treated. Previously only small numbers of people could access treatment from a limited number of hospital beds � he conceived the idea of Community-based Therapeutic Care (CTC).
He tells me �CTC programmes treat the vast majority of malnourished people in their homes, using decentralised networks of outpatient treatment sites to provide a take-home ration of specialist Ready-to-Use Food (RUF) and routine medicines.�
These programmes have treated millions of children and are being rolled out worldwide. He established Valid International, an organisation which provides technical assistance in the roll out of these programmes and an Irish social business, Valid Nutrition, set up as a charity but run as a business with all profits reinvested into the charity.
Valid Nutrition manufactures the specialist RUF in the countries in which the food is needed, thereby providing a market for farmers' crops and stimulating the local economy.
His work on famine relief in Africa earned him an MBE.
This globetrotting inevitably leaves Clare and a farm manager to do much of the on-farm work.
However, Steve's background has also allowed him to see the merit and potential in a leading edge grass production system.
Steve tells me �the plan under investigation is to reduce feed costs, and increase growth rates, by phasing out the use of silage during the winter and introducing a fodder system to produce live, sprouted fodder from organic grains, pulses and oilseeds, which can be fed to the cattle on a daily basis.�
�This sprouting system greatly increases the nutrient value of grain by increasing the bio-availability of a range of micro and macro nutrients. One kilo of grain produces approximately eight kilos of live feed in seven days.�
A positive of the use of sprouted oil seed such as flax and sunflower is that it �will increase the essential fatty acid - good fats such as omega 3s - content of the beef.�
Dexter meat, it should be remembered, is considered a high end gourmet meat, hung for considerably longer with excellent marbling.
And with such a unique product, it comes as no suprize to learn that the Collins' intend to direct sell their meat on line.
No comments:
Post a Comment