Growing Organics is a programme focused on supporting and increasing organic production. The programme, led by Teagasc and supported by DAFM, promotes the adoption of best practice at farm level to increase the future viability and sustainability of the Irish organic sector.
Organic demonstration farms have been selected throughout the country to illustrate best practice and monitor key financial and environmental metrics. Providing up to date technical advice. The results from the activities on the demonstration farms will be made available to all farmers and researchers to improve the data available on different aspects of organic farming.
The organic demonstration farms will focus on:
grassland management
livestock nutrition
animal health and welfare
financial management
environmental sustainability
crop management
Growing Organics Demonstration Farms
Sarah Turner, Gowlanes, Castlecove, Co. Kerry – Hill Sheep and Suckling
An excellent opportunity for anyone considering entering organic production to see first-hand the differences in operating an organic system. Teagasc Advisors, DAFM representatives, the Organic Certification Bodies and of course the farmers themselves are all available on the day to answer questions and give guidance.
Click on the links below to find out more about the upcoming Growing Organics Farm Walks:
Suckler to Stores: John O’Hanlon, Ballymahon, Co. Longford
Tuesday, 23rd September | 2pm
Join us on Tuesday, 23rd September at 2pm for a Growing Organics Suckler to Stores Farm Walk on the farm of John O’Hanlon, Tipper, Ballymahon, Co. Longford, N39 K0Y8.
John and Stephanie O’Hanlon farm 38.88ha in Tipper, Ballymahon, Co. Longford. The farm joined the Organic Farming Scheme in 2023 and are currently fully converted. The farm consists of 31.23ha of grassland, 6.12ha of forestry and 1.53ha of a Riparian Buffer Zone.
John and Enda O’Hart, Teagasc Organic Advisor provide an overview as to what to expect on the day in the short clip below.
John’s aim when deciding to join the Growing Organics Programme was to make a genuine attempt at running an efficient and profitable organic suckler herd on mixed quality land whilst working full time off farm.
The main farming system involves operating a spring calving 30 cow suckler herd selling progeny at roughly 15/16 months of age over the summer months to give cash flow. Due to an outbreak of TB in late 2024, John began to rethink his production system. The outbreak resulted in John having to carry over a lot of stock over the winter that he had intended to sell, which caused problems in terms of having enough fodder and the fact that he couldn’t sell stock, meant his cash flow on the farm was affected. The decision was made to gradually move to a suckler to finishing system which will result in reducing the cow numbers over the next few years, switching to an Angus bull and finishing all progeny. The cows are Simmental, Limousin and Hereford crosses and are run with an Angus bull which was purchased this year. To date all cattle have been sold conventionally at the local mart. Calves born since 01/04/2023 are organic and these are sold once they reach 15/16 months.
Some of the key changes that happened on the farm since joining organics were to adjust animal housing such that it met the organic standards, managing ragwort, addressing soil fertility namely liming, providing additional FYM storage, creating additional paddocks and establishing some red clover and multi species swards.
John places a large emphasis on making quality silage in so far as this is possible and this is done so that he can get decent animal performance cheaply from these silages. He aims to cut his first cut in late May each year and has consistently produced good quality silage each year. He aims for 2 cuts on the grass only swards and 3 cuts on the red clover sward. There is a very low level of meal fed on the farm with just enough fed to comply with the Beef Welfare Scheme.
Tillage: Tommy Delahunt, Ballinaclogh, Co. Wicklow
Wednesday, 9th July | 11am
A Growing Organics Tillage Farm Walk took place on Wednesday, 9 July on the farm of Tommy Delahunt, Ballinaclogh, Co. Wicklow.
Tommy Delahunt is farming 31.15 ha of organic tillage land in east Wicklow. He grows a range of winter and spring cereals, pea/bean intercrops and barley/pea intercrops along with multispecies grass swards.
He opted for a partial tillage conversion into organic farming on 1st January 2023 and initially put 17 ha’s into conversion. This area increased in 2024 to 31.15 ha’s.
Going forward, he intends to use the multispecies grass leys as part of his crop rotation and to help reduce his wild oat and broad-leaved weed population. Other crops on the farm are combination crops of barley/pea, which are sown under contract for an organic dairy farmer and spring oats for the expanding organic animal feed market and also some of the oat crop is contracted to Flahavans. A relatively new concept of growing a pea/bean intercrop is being carried out on Tommy’s farm with the aim of providing an Irish grown source of protein for the organic animal feed market. He is also experimenting the growing of organic maize and if this is successful, it will offer another crop to become part of the rotation and he believes that there could be a great demand for organic maize from beef and dairy farmers.
Tommy’s soil fertility is at optimum level for pH, P and K and making the transition to organic farming has been a little easier for Tommy, given that historically, he imported large quantities of organic manures for his tillage crops, particularly poultry layers manure and cattle slurry. This would have replaced large amounts of chemical fertiliser over the years, while still maintaining yields and building soil fertility. He hopes to continue using a combination of imported cattle slurry, organic/free-range poultry manure along with organic approved poultry pellets to provide adequate nutrition to his organic crops. Another element of maintaining good soil fertility on the farm involves chopping the straw from the organic cereal crops in order to retain some of the P & K from the straw on the fields.
The farm walk took an in-depth look at the intercropping of protein crops (beans/peas) and at intercrops of barley/peas also. A focus on the day will be on looking at high seeding rates vs lower seeding rates for oats and also looking at the advantages of a winter oat crop compared to a spring oat crop with regards to weed control.
Given that Tommy is growing some crops under contract for other organic farmers, there will be a look at grain handling facilities along with assessing the value of the crop for sale to the organic feed market.
As Tommy has some legacy weed issues on the farm – mainly wild oats and broadleaved weeds- crop rotations will be the cornerstone of his organic system to overcoming any of the weed challenges that will arise. Tommy believes that a diverse range of crops in the rotation will limit the likelihood of weeds becoming a problem on the farm. He is open to re-seeding fields back into multispecies grass or red clover in order to rest land and allow weeds to be controlled by grazing, cutting and mulching.
Tommy is very much looking forward to a new system of farming since his conversion into organics in 2023. He is confident that partial organic farming offers an economically viable alternative on his tillage farm.
A Growing Organics Vegetables Farm Walk took place on Wednesday, 23 July on the farm of Emmett Dunne, Leo Dunne & Co. Ltd., & O’Duinn Organacha, Dunmore, Durrow, Co. Laois. The Growing Organics Monitor Farm Programme organic vegetables farm walk was with one of Ireland’s leading vegetable growers.
Emmett Dunne began organic production in 2000, and now grows 30 acres of organic carrots, 100 acres of potatoes, 20 acres of leeks and 5 acres of kale. In total, Emmett has 550 acres of land in his organic rotation, which also includes 150 acres of organic winter and spring oats, 70 acres of beans and 75 acres in clover.
Key topics discussed:
Field scale production of organic carrots, potatoes, leeks and kale
Best practice field scale organic vegetable agronomy
Organic tillage crops in organic vegetable rotations
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