Organic dairy farming: a viable option?

Is it worth considering the organic option if you are a diary farmer? And if so, how does the day to day practice of farming differ from conventional farming?

First, the organic option for diary. The the formation of a new company for the organic dairy sector, called the Irish Organic Milk Producers (IOMP), will certainly help. From launching a new product range, to pooling resources and lobbying, the benefits of the company will be numerous.

IOMP has a current pool of 4 million litres of quota, rising to 6 million soon.

The freeing up of quota has increased the opportunities for the sector.

An issue however remains the stocking rates and housing differences between conventional and organic dairying: conventional farmers who have invested in high stocking numbers and specialised housing have already made serious commitments.

That said, according to Teagasc figures, the organic dairy sector is profitable. Whilst output is 8% higher on conventional diary farms, family farm income is 7% higher on organic dairy farms due to total costs being 16% lower.

These figures are explained by the fact that, while gross output, gross margins and overhead costs are all similar, direct costs are 708E per hectare on organic dairy farms, whilst the conventional equivalent is 923E per hectare.

Direct payments are also 12% higher on organic farms, which are also on average 1/3 larger. This compensates for the lower stocking rate organic farms must carry.

According to Teagasc statistics on winter milk, organic diary farms scored almost as well as the top 10% in the conventional diary sector.

Teagasc's James McDonnell: �There is an opportunity for conventional spring milk producers to switch to organic production and gain 10,000 gallons of quota to grow their business. �

He also points out that there is profitability potential due to the fact that conventional �milk prices are falling on the world market at present�.

John Liston farms 80 hectares near Croom in Limerick. He stocks both dairy cows and beef animals, and has a hectare of forestry. He converted to organic in December 06, and has sold milk to Glenisk since then.

John's 60 cows calve in July August. He carries the calves to yearling, with the males sold as year olds and the heifers sold to be put into calf. Some are also fattened for Jennings meats in Mayo. He has a 60,000 gallon quota.

Feed price and availability is an issue. At present, a local organic farmer, Harry O Grady, supplies oats. The establishment of the new IOMP is a great help, according to John, as organic dairy farmers can now pool resources, source inputs and increase efficiency.

He gives an example: �you can divide an artic load of feed between 2 or 3 farmers, so there's no half loads�.

�For me, converting was easy because I'd a small quota relative to the farm size� he tells me.

One of the biggest changes between organic and conventional is �that you don't have early grass. That's where you need extra silage. You have as much late on, but its tight in March April.� To this end, he planted red clover, �for quality of silage and yield� he tells me. With clover, John gets �three crops off one meadow, about 20 round bales per acre�.

Medically, John sometimes uses homeopathy for dosing calves. He also finds that putting calves under cows he has problems with can help.

In yield terms, the weather is always an issue. Simply put, the longer the animal stays on grass, the cheaper it is for John.

Compared to other sectors, diary can involve significant changes when converting to organic. All told however, it is certainly worth considering.

What's in a name? Or, is Rachael organic, or just your new best friend Rachael?

In light of the establishment of a new Irish organic milk producers company (IOMP), it is apt to look again at the organic diary sector across Europe.

In the UK and Ireland, there are both similarities and differences between the respective dairy sectors of the two countries. The UK was importing milk at the beginning of 2008, whereas now it exports. While shortage in supply on mainland Europe is part of this, yet again, the sterling differential helps UK farmers over and above their competitors.

Milk sales in the UK in 2008 were up 10%, according to the Soil Association. This has been put down to the clarity of the organic dairy message and the relatively low price premium organic milk and milk products carry.

Still, this was not enough to stop 'Rachael's Organic' from becoming just 'Rachael's'. The company themselves claim to be suprised by the furore, and put it down to a branding move, a mere name simplification.

�We have been astonished by the attention this small change has attracted,� stated group spokesperson Steve Clarke. �In part it is because there is currently a perceived downturn in sales of organic produce elsewhere but this was not the reason for the logo tweak, which has been in the pipeline for several months since the autumn.�

Across Rachel�s packaging, the manufacturer claimed that the term �organic� would still be highly visible and that it was responding to consumer research conducted last summer that found preference for a simpler brand name.

In others words, like Maria (Carey) Whitney (Houston) Lenny (Kravitz) and of course Bertie (Ahern), when consumers get to know a product well, they know it on a first name basis.

�Rachel�s organic yogurts have in fact seen an 18.3 per cent - year on year - increase in sales for the first quarter of 2009 so we are seeing fantastic growth,� stated Clarke.

Further afield, scientists in Germany, where organic milk is a whopping 11% of the market, claim to have invented an organic milk test.

One of the issues with organic is that the validation process is done through checking on actions, rather than on the products themselves. So paper trials, inspections are used to decide if someone is organic.

Researchers at the Federal Institute of Nutrition and Food Research, Kiel, developed a test based on an analysis of milk fat for the ratio of stable isotopes of carbon.

They used it to identify milk samples from cows raised on feed containing a higher ration of maize, more of which is used in conventional feed than organic rations in Germany.

Organically raised cows are fed less maize but more grass. However, the transferability of this test to other regions is questionable, as the feeding regimes differ from country to country.

This research also discovered higher levels of alpha-linolenic acid, or Omega 3 fatty acids. This is now proving to be typical for organic milk over conventional, and may be part of organic milk's appeal.

Likewise research presented in Ireland by Dr. Carlo Leifert (Quality Low Input Food project in Newcastle University) at the Bord Bia Organic conference last September did much the same. This research consistently pointed to organic as superior nutritionally, especially with regard to Omega 3 and the vital 3 to 6 ratio.
However again, the issue may partly be the grass levels fed. Low input farming (ie low on concentrates high on grass) also scored well nutritionally in Leifert's research.

The make up of the ration has proven to be important too: Researchers (again from Newcastle) found that by adding a mix of soya beans, rapeseed and linseed to the daily food rations for each cow kept indoors, milk quality improved and was comparable to the milk from an outdoor cow eating a fresh grass diet.

In Ireland, both organic and conventional cows eat a higher proportion of grass than elsewhere in Europe, due to the amount it rains here.

Whatever about the rain, across Europe, organic milk and milk products continue to sell well and to carry a strong message.

With a pool of up to 4 million litres of milk, it is likely that the IOMP will have a bright future.

Early April organic events: thinking, doing and no april foolin

Plato and Aristotle explore organic farming in Ireland

Plato looked to an ideal essence from which our understanding of reality is formed, Aristotle looked at things. Heaven and earth, the sky and the ground, the astral and terra firma.

From fundos to realos (see history here), the organic movement has alwys had both practical and philosophical dimensions. The beginning of April is a golden opportunity to engage in both.

The least apt day of the year for the now departed Merf � Dr. Charles Merfield � to give a talk in Ireland is April Fool's day, for he's far from a fool.

In fact, he's a classic brainbox, full of science, ideas, and inventions.

Merf, until recently an organic crop researcher with Teagasc and UCD, returns to Ireland to give a talk entitled 'Organics: Philosophy of Agriculture Science and Ethics' in UCD on April 1st at 1pm.

This talk is part of the UCD History and Philosophy of Science Lecture Series, and is being held in the Seminar Room of the Humanities Institute of Ireland at University College Dublin (UCD).

Merf's seminar will briefly review the history and context of organic agriculture from its beginnings in the early 1900s with its focus on soil nutrition and human health. It will then examine the 1960s anti synthetic biocide revolution and finally today's multiple organic systems will be considered.

This history will provide a foundation �to examine the fundamental differences between organic and industrial agriculture with a particular focus on ethics, and the role of science followed by and exploration of organic's critique of industrial agriculture� according to Merf.

The next day, April 2nd, features a perhaps more typical but nonetheless interesting organic farming day.

The Teagasc organic conference will be held in the Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone. It begins at 9am, and features a host of important speakers and topics.

The first session deals with a topic close to every farmers heart. It is entitled, very straightforwardly, 'Making Money from Organic Farming'. Two Teagasc organic advisors James McDonnell and Dan Clavin will present on profitability of organic farms and financial planning for farmers undergoing conversion.

The next sessions deals with market opportunities for organic milk, meat and grain. Perhaps suprizingly, there is no place at the table for the newly formed Irish Organic Milk Producers Company.

However, Glenisk's Vincent Cleary will be one of the chairs, along with chair of the National Organic Steering Committee John Duggan.

A highlight in this session will be the presentation by Dr. Nic Lampkin ofthe Organic Research Centre, Elm Farm, Berkshire. Nic's 1990 book on organic farming is considered a bible while his work on developing the organic sector in wales has been considered integral to their strong recent growth. Nic' s presentation is on UK and EU markets.

Along with Nic, John Purcell of the Good Herdsman � the largest organic meat processor in either Ireland or the UK, John Flahavan of Flahavans who have capacity to talk in more Irish produce, and Anthony Murphy (Skettering Nutrition, Co. Mayo) will present.

The after lunch session gives a farmer's perspective.

Cavan's Richard Moeran has been described as a rare breed with a rare breed. He is chair of Cavan IFA, certified organic and stocks saddleback pigs. He also carries lamb and beef, and grows much of his own feed.

His produce is sold direct and through supermarkets, so he really can speak from and for a number of perspectives.

Also presenting the farmers' perspective is Noel Lynch of Macroom (beef, sheep, tillage)
and Fintan Rice, of Fethard, Co. Tipperary (dairying).

Following this, another session on profitabilty will be held. This time, the focus is on increasing profit margins outside the farm gate. This session is chaired by Peter Young, organic farmer and journalist.

His own Castlefarm enterprise is a great model for innovative ways to increase profitability. With his wife Jenny, they direct sell, make their own cheese, do school trips and a host range of courses. The next one is on making outdoor clay ovens.

Lorcan Burke (Bord Bia) will present on purchasing trends in the current climate, while Mark Winterbotham, (Gold River Farms, Co. Wicklow) will present on direct selling.

See here or ring 059 917 020

organic milk in Ireland: news, issues and a new company

A new company has been established by a group of 16 organic dairy farmers. I spoke to Tipperary organic farmer Pat Mulrooney, of the newly formed Irish Organic Milk Producers (IOMP) Company about the company and also about issues facing the sector in general.

Quota, costs and prices, the need for joined up thinking about organics at Departmental level, and the remit and opportunities of the new company all emerged as key issues.

First off, Pat does see some growth potential: �We see development, and more farmers coming into it, if not in the short term them further down the line. Our production will double in the next 2 yrs, and it will probably double in Northern Ireland as well. Some of our 16 members haven�t come on stream into organic as of yet.�

However, according to Pat, this doubling will come about because of extra farmers, not because of quota increases:

�Its 2001 or 2002 since anyone has been able to get quota of any size. There is no-one retiring from our group, and we�re not able to get anything from the national pool�.

�There is a small amount of new quota for various new products, but none for our specific products. There is such a small pool of milk available to us, and none from any other source�

While the vast majority of organic milk will still be purchased by Glenisk, Pat suggests that freeing up some quota would allow for some product and brand development.

As with so many other farmers, feed costs are a major concern:

�We�d like to see more done with summer milk. Winter milk is a hefty commitment. The costs are gone crazy, with meal at �600 a tonne. It�s crippling and marginalising. Now, we�re all adapting to this as best we can, to develop systems where we�re less dependent on meal, such as growing our own crops, and growing more red clover. But we�ve no good alternative system in place - we�re making progress, but even growing our own feed puts more pressure on our available land�.

In this variable costs context, price inevitably becomes an issue. Because of the differences in production costs, every six months or so, there are discussions as to the price of summer and winter milk: �We got a reasonable price last winter, and we�re hopeful that we�ll come to a reasonable conclusion for this summer�.

Specifically, Pat states: �Really, you�d want 60c per litre for the winter and, at the very minimum, 47 to 48 cent for the summer�

Winter prices will be discussed again on the 1^st August, while summer prices are being finalised at the moment.

What is perhaps most frustrating is that the Department seems to be speaking with a forked tongue - promoting organics with one side, and holding it back with the other:

�Overall it�s a bit disjointed. While there are some good government schemes promoting organic farming, we�re very much left behind. We can�t improve like our neighbours, though we�re living in the same economy. Promotion and grant aid money are all fine, and we�re supportive of that. But there has to be something in the quota system to allow us to expand like our neighbours. Otherwise it won�t be viable.�

The current situation for organic dairy farmers with regard to costs, price and quota has provided an impetus for the formation of the IOMP company:

�At least we�ll have a more coherent voice. We�ll be giving different jobs to different people in the company. We�ll educate ourselves this first year.�

The company will have a business development dimension: Marketing and developing a better understanding of actual on-farm milk production costs are two areas Pat cites that the company will be focusing on.

Overall them, there are both opportunities and constraints on the organic dairy sector. The Irish Organic Milk Producers company will at least help the sector represent itself.