Steve Collins: farming and yes feeding the world

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.

Converting to Organic: Oliver Davey in the first person

Oliver Davey and his wife Eleanor are in conversion to organic for over a year. Here is the story so far.

My farm is located in the townland of Tubbertelly, south Sligo. The marginal land consists of 44 hectares of owned land, 8 hectares of long term lease land, 12 hectares of shared commonage and 35 hectares of short- term hillside rented land.

From the early 1980�s to 2005 this farm carried a suckler herd- Simmental, Limousin, Shorthorn and Vosgienne. I sold all male weanlings at 8 to 9 months, and heifers for breeding at 15 to 18 months. I would also retain some heifers for replacements, and used A.I. bulls.

A number of factors led me to organic farming. The change in weather conditions over the past 12 years had started to take its toll on my farm. Longer winter housing was required along with more silage and nuts, as well as extra manure and fertiliser to strengthen the land. Profits were suffering due to these added expenses.

I began attending the Teagasc organic farm walks. David Notley�s farm, Aughamore, Carrick-on-Shannon had land much the same as mine. Having had a good look around and after asking numerous questions I knew this was the way I wanted to farm in the future: I came away realising that if I did organic farming I would know exactly what was on my farm and what I would be eating. I visited two more organic farms - Jimmy Barlow�s in Ballymoe, Galway and Danny Kilcullen�s in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo - before I decided to change.

Dan Clavin, an Organic Advisor with Teagasc, helped with the Organic Conversion Plan. It took me about three months to get all the requirements in place - a Soil Analysis report, a Faecal Parasite Examination Report, a detailed Health Plan signed off by a veterinary surgeon, maps, a detailed plan of animal housing, livestock details and anticipated numbers of stock during conversion.

There have been a few ups and downs. Having changed my animal housing to straw bedding in February 2009, my slurry supply dropped by 60% and the bedding took at least 6 months to mature.

I usually cut silage during late June however last year the weather was poor and silage was not cut until the end of July. While the quantity was okay the quality was poor for my standards due to the weather conditions and cutting the silage this late.

I had also reseeded three and a half hectares to provide additional winter feed however this too failed due to the poor weather conditions.

Consequently I had to reduce my stock numbers for my first winter in conversion. I also had to buy my own machinery for cleaning sheds and spreading farm yard manure. The plus side to this is that with my own machinery its me who decides when the work will be done.

Even though my work load has increased - I spend more time with my animals feeding and bedding and straw bedding is rather expensive - I can see a great change in my animals and have noticed a drop in veterinary expenses.

So far I have no regrets. There will always be unforeseen problems in any new venture and a lot of things are new to me but IOFGA and especially other farmers who have already converted have been very helpful.

As well as converting my farm to organic, I have also recently added the Irish rare breed Dexter cows and heifers. Pedigree Dexters, both short and non short, now make up 60% of my herd. They suit my land and are less expensive to manage. Their meat very highly rated.

I have a fixed price two-year contract with a Northern Ireland meat factory, once the Dexters are under 30 months and grass fed.

Once I receive my full symbol as an organic producer I will get a slight increase in the price premium from the meat factory. I also hope to be in a position to sell my beef direct to the customer.