Signpost update: Doing the day job and flying the flag for Irish organic farming
After a busy couple of weeks flying the organics flag and claiming European honours, Kay O’Sullivan, an organic farmer and participant in the Teagasc Signpost and Future Beef Programmes, brings us up to date with the latest happenings from Mourneabbey, Co. Cork.
I have had a busy few weeks off the farm. I gave a presentation on my organic farm system at the EU Stand at the National Ploughing Championships. It was great to catch up with the likes of The Organic Trust, Good Herdsmen, Teagasc Organics and the organic industry at the Organic Village.
With well wishes from the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, I headed off to Brussels for the EU Organic Awards ceremony held on EU Organic Day. The event was held at The EU Charlemagne building, where the keynote speech was given by Elisabeth Werner, Director General for Agriculture and Rural Development.
The first award category was for best female organic farmer, and I was nominated in this category. I was the first Irish nominee to feature in any category since 2024. I was selected by a jury as the winner of the EU Organic Female Farmer Award for 2026! I was delighted to win this award. It was such an honour to represent the organic sector as a finalist and to win was the icing on the cake. To receive this award was great for the Irish organic sector, for the Future Beef Programme, the Signpost Programme and for all female farmers. It was a busy few weeks but a great experience and so enjoyable.
Read more: European recognition for Kay O’Sullivan
Back to the farm
Back to the day job, as Autumn draws in and the evenings getting shorter, it is very much a time for the autumn jobs on the farm.
The weanlings got their second vaccination of Bovipast, and all the male calves were castrated in August. The weanlings will receive a bolus towards the end of the month as they will be weaned onto the Redstart, a cross between kale and rape. As the Redstart is low in trace elements, the bolus will contain iodine, cobalt, selenium and copper.
The red clover silage, which had a very good cover, was mulched back into the ground. Farmyard manure has been spread on the red clover silage. I cleaned out all the sheds over the summer with the farmyard manure stored in a lean-to. I use a compost thermometer to bring the dung to 65oC, then it is turned. There was no need to cover the farmyard manure this year with a compost cover, as with the warm weather it was easy to reach the 65oC.
I continue to grass measure on a weekly basis and have a farm cover of 770 kg DM / livestock unit. There is great growth there, once ground conditions hold up to allow me to graze it. I hope to keep cows out grazing longer. The last of the lambs were weighed and sold. Cull ewes have been drafted from the main breeding flock. They will be sold later in the year. The ram was introduced in mid-September to the breeding flock.
The sheep have been faecel sampled with the samples dropped into my vet. Results came back with no issue on the sheep side.
I am participating in the Beef Welfare Scheme. As part of the scheme, I must collect two faecal samples from the beef animals. They must be taken within a month of each other. Sample one has been sent to the lab, and I am awaiting the results. The last of the 2025 cattle have now been finished and sent to a Good Herdsmen in Cahir. They are the main organic processing unit in the country. These cattle were finished at 17 months off a grass-based system of multispecies over the summer with no meal fed.
From an emissions perspective this is very positive. Finishing animals early on no meals means less methane emissions from the cattle, less emissions from dung storage and spreading and no emissions from concentrate feeds. It’s a win-win for the farm – good for my pocket and good for the environment.
The above first appeared in the Farming Examiner as part of a Signpost Programme Update.
For more on the Teagasc Signpost Programme, visit here.
For more on Kay O’Sullivan’s farm and the Future Beef Programme, visit here