Features
Castlewood Conversion
When Dominic Leonard agreed to take over the running of his uncle's farm in Co. Kilkenny, he did so on two conditions. The first was that he be allowed to run the 250 acre farm at Durrow under organic management. The second was that he could later develop the farm as a centre for eco-tourism.
'The idea of working on a conventional farm didn't appeal to me', says Dominic, who moved to the farm from Dublin two years ago. He put the land at Castlewood House into organic conversion last August. He had hoped to start into conversion earlier in the year but his initial inspection was delayed by the foot and mouth crisis.
Information
According to Dominic the most difficult aspect of his conversion has been getting information on organic farming. He found Nic Lampkins' book Organic Farming very useful and some of his questions were answered in copies of Organic Matters .
But meeting other farmers is always better than any book or magazine and Dominic had great difficulty in finding other organic farmers. 'There should be a network of people whom you can contact', says Dominic. 'It took me a long time to find anyone. And then I'd have to say that some of the people I got onto were fed up answering queries over the years and weren't prepared to be all that helpful. Most of what I've learnt about organic farming came from books and articles.'
Worm problems
Dominic currently has 50 store cattle on the farm and 110 ewes. The cattle are mainly Limousins and the ewes are Belclare-Texel crosses. Dominic chose Belclare-Texel cross when he was buying in hoggets as the Belclare breed are reputed to have fewer foot problems and the Texel ewe has a greater resistance to worms. 'Having said that, I had to get permission to dose, as their worm burden had become too great,' says Dominic. 'But then most of the flock were hoggets which tend to scour a lot easier and anyway I had no clean ground for them this year. However I would be very interested to hear about any alternatives to dosing. For example I've heard very differing accounts of the effectiveness of homeopathic medicines. '
Stitching clover
There is a tendency on the part of those who promote organic farming to downplay the difficulties involved in converting a modern conventional farm. Dominic found that increasing the clover content of his sward wasn't all that easy. 'I ripped the surface to add the seed and then rolled it,' says Dominic. 'But in most fields it didn't take - the weather was too dry. And where it did take, I didn't let the sheep in on it in time so the emerging clover was smothered by the grass. I'll have to try again this year.'
Tillage and feeding
About ninety acres of the farm has been in tillage for the last ten or fifteen years which hasn't been good for the soil. To allow a proper rotation Dominic is reducing the acreage to fifty. He plans to put a seven-year rotation in place which will consist of barley, beans, oats followed by four years of grass. He reseeded about thirty acres last year using mainly Italian ryegrass. This year, having read up on grass varieties suitable for organic farms, he will be sowing a mixture that contains more traditional varieties such as Timothy.
On discovering the high cost of buying in organic animal feed, Dominic decided to erect a purpose built shed so that he could use his home grown cereals. 'I wanted to be able to store and roll my own grain', he says. 'I also want to save my own seed. This year my seed bill was over €2,500. The shed was a huge expense but in the long term it will save a lot.'
To make efficient use of his grain, Dominic had the flock scanned. Those with singles were fed up to three hundred grammes whereas ewes with triplets were given up to eight hundred grammes per day coming up to lambing. Because last winter was so mild they didn't really need any hay or silage. Regularly running the flock thorough a bath of zinc sulphate and lime kept away any foot problems.
Housing
Housing is usually one of the biggest problems for farmers converting to organic methods. The most common problem is the difficulty faced by farmers with slatted units in adapting their housing to the organic standards. Fortunately for Dominic the cattle on his farm were always housed in straw bedded loose houses. 'I had no problems with housing,' he says. 'It's a lot of work - the sheds are not laid out very efficiently. But the cattle are very happy. None of them were ill this winter.'
Most of his land is free-draining, so outwintering the sheep presents no difficulties.
Another addition to the farm was a properly constructed concrete dungstead to store the dung and compost from the farm. Dominic has realised that turning the heap is the key to producing nutritious well-composted dung. 'It was only turned once this year before being spread', he says. 'In future I'll turn it more often.'
Organic Standards
Dominic admits to finding some of the organic standards rather puzzling. Recently he had the common problem of lice on his cattle. Looking up the standards he read that products containing Deltamethrin were permitted. 'When I asked my local chemist for this he was very surprised to learn that it was allowed on organic farms,' he says. 'He told me that Deltamethrin is more toxic to the environment than many newer products. The organic thinking seems to be that you can use it because it's old - the same as the arguments for copper sulphate. Anyway in the end the chemist recommended a product that he considered less harmful.'
Eco-tourism
Having left Dublin for the quieter rural peace of Durrow, Dominic naturally finds that farming can be a lonely occupation. That's at least one of his reasons for his
plans to go into eco-tourism. His ambitions in this area are considerably more than simply providing bed and breakfast for green tourists. He hopes ultimately to have a conference centre on his farm. 'It would be a way of meeting people of like mind', he says.
His other reason for diversifying has to do with how he sees the future of the organic sector in Ireland. He doesn't believe that the high prices that organic farmers have been getting for their stock can continue into the future. 'In the long term, if more people go into organic farming then the prices for finished beef will go down', says Dominic. 'All farmers today have to diversify to survive. Eco-tourism is the way I plan to supplement my income so that I can continue.'
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