Organic Crop Walk – Carlow

The Teagasc Organics team are hosting an Organic Crop Walk on Thursday, 4^th June at 11am on the farm of Joe Nolan, Kilconnor, Fenagh, Co. Carlow, R21 CK66.

This on farm event is a great opportunity to assess current crop performance and discuss practical crop husbandry challenges.

Click here to register to attend!

Topics to be discussed will include:

• Crop rotations
• Soil health
• Crop nutrition
• Weed control
• Organic market outlook

About the farm

Joe Nolan is farming in Kilconnor, Fenagh, Co. Carlow along with his wife Clair and their son Ciaran. Joe began his conversion to organic farming in March 2022 and reached full organic status in March 2024. The farm which is 98.45 ha’s comprises of a mix of tillage and sheep production with 53.81 ha’s in tillage and 44.64 ha’s in grass/red clover/multispecies.

The sheep enterprise consists of approximately 360 ewes which lamb outdoors in March and April. Joe is in the process of changing his breed of ewes to Easycare breed, one of the main benefits of the Easycare breed is that they shed their own wool, require minimal veterinary input and they offer excellent meat yields and lambing ratios.

The target weights of lambs for slaughter are 42 – 44 Kg’s with 50% of the lambs being finished in July/August and sold to ICM in Camolin, Co Wexford. The remainder are held over the winter and fed according to their weights on winter cover crops of stubble turnips/rape/vetch/kale and MSS. This grazing is supplemented with red clover silage along with Oats if necessary, with the aim to have lambs ready for slaughter in January.

Joe makes red clover silage to meet his winter feeding requirement along with growing Oats and Barley/Pea/Oat crops. No concentrate feed is purchased for his flock. Joe has expanded his tillage enterprise since his conversion to organics. He now grows Oats for Flahavans, seed Oats for Goldcrop, wheat for a local artisan bakery and is also growing Barley/Pea/Oats for his own feed and on contract for other organic farmers. The organic journey for Joe has resulted in an increase in tillage area on the farm and in turn he has invested in a seed cleaner, grain dryer and a Gutler Drill to enhance his tillage practices.

Soil fertility is very good on the farm, the most recent soil sample results show 72% of the farm is optimum for P, 53% of the farm is optimum for K and 85% of the farm has a pH > 6.3. Joe believes “that the grazing of sheep is a significant contributor to maintaining soil fertility, along with the chopping and incorporation of straw each year and sowing of cover crops and the regular spreading of lime which has been a traditional since the beet growing days on the farm.”

Joe is very happy to have made the move into an organic farming system. “It suits the way I want to farm and my lifestyle. I like the way I can sow a crop and close the gate on it. I also find there is much more of a need to plan ahead and make decisions in advance. You also need to understand your own farm and stock and know what they need and what you can achieve with your land and animals under the organic system.”

Find out more about Organics in Teagasc here  | View the Teagasc Organics team here