Features
A Family Affair
Hobbling about on crutches is no fun when you have to look after six hundred turkeys, so it’s lucky for John Paul Crowe that he has family help at this crucial time of year for a poultry enterprise. A recent broken ankle has slowed him down but he expects to be fully back in harness before the onset of the main Christmas rush.
Diversifying
The resourceful Crowe brothers have developed their Tipperary-based business since converting to organic in 2006, adding pigs, turkeys and occasionally sheep to their existing beef enterprise. TJ looks after the family abattoir and butchery while Eamonn takes care of transport and delivery and John Paul is responsible for the turkeys. “It’s our third year to have turkeys,” he explains. “We started out with two hundred and increased that to four hundred last year. I thought we could have sold at least another fifty last year so I decided to increase the number again this year. I’m confident that we will have a market for all six hundred”.
Even though he reared some white turkeys to begin with, John Paul has opted for all bronze varieties this year. “They are better overall, hardier and easier to manage and have a better flavour,” he says. There is demand for all sizes of turkey so he buys in a variety of breeds as day-old chicks to ensure a range of sizes for the Christmas market. “This year I got the chicks on 22nd June which is earlier than last year, but bronze turkeys need the time to grow and develop flavour. They are much slower than white turkeys”.
The first six weeks is the tricky period when fatalities are most likely to occur. “There is a lot to learn in the first few weeks. The chicks remain on heat for six weeks and are weaned off by week seven,” says John Paul. “Then they are moved to the grower house and have full access to outdoors. They are fed an organic turkey starter for the first period and that is followed by a grower ration until twelve weeks. Then they go on to a mix of wheat, barley, oats and a rapeseed by-product”.
Turkey Plucking
Bronze turkeys are very healthy and adapt to the outdoors quickly. “Starting that bit earlier this year was an advantage and the birds have a lovely healthy sheen on their feathers at the moment,” he says. “They are out in all weathers but good shelter and good fencing are essential”. To prove the point, thirty birds decamped to the neighbours and were missing for three days until spotted in a neighbouring field.
Killing for the Christmas market starts around the 12th December and these birds will be dry plucked and hung for a couple of weeks. The remainder will be killed on 21st December, wet plucked and stored in a cold room awaiting collection and distribution. “We supply some butchers, we have a lot of on line orders and some birds are delivered by courier,” says John Paul. “We distribute to Limerick, Cork, Dublin and Waterford. In the run up to Christmas, a lot of customers will call to pick up birds from the farm”.
The Crowes supply around 3,000 hams at Christmas and John Paul finds that the turkeys fit well with their market. They keep ten sows and finish about forty organic pigs for Christmas. “There is good demand for organic pork especially from restaurants.
Overall, the demand is good and orders are not down this year. People never stint on Christmas. It’s one time of year free from recession”. John Paul keeps his organic pork prices in line with free range price levels and finds the demand growing year on year.
The level of organic or even free range pork production is tiny in Ireland compared to the UK where 60% of product is a combination of organic and free range. He feels that there is huge potential for development and a production standard is currently being drafted by Bord Bia. He sees difficulty with keeping pigs outdoors through the winter and envisages some form of housing with limited access to outdoors. “Pigs thrive outdoors in summer but, in our weather conditions, it is more difficult in winter,” he says.
Future Growth
Another aspect of the Crowes business is also growing in popularity. They invested in a large spit to roast whole pigs for shows, concerts and events. This proved so popular that they now have five machines on the go during peak season.
The abattoir is a major part of the business and they have an organic licence to kill for their own business and for individual farmers. For the future, John Paul sees the family investing in more on-farm facilities. “It makes sense to have a dedicated abattoir for killing turkeys so that we can do all the processing ourselves. As well as that we will need to invest in more equipment and storage”.
With the growing resurgence in self-sufficiency and new small enterprises, the Crowes have added a further string to their bow. “We run a number of courses on sausage making, butchery, smoking and organic pig production,” John Paul says. “We usually run our courses in conjunction with NOTS when there is sufficient demand”.
Going organic is something that he has not regretted. “Since I became an organic farmer I am a better farmer. I’ve learned a lot about rotations, soil and the importance of farmyard manure. I’m farming more efficiently and more effectively. Even though the stocking rate is lower, I don’t have the cost of expensive inputs. I have to plan in advance all the time and providing the best life for your animals will repay you in the end”. He advises anyone starting out to start small and grow with the market. “It’s important to know where you are going and to look at the viability of your business. If you don’t have a market, don’t do it”. He foresees the market for organic will always be there as long as it is a quality product. “You are not just selling a product; you are selling yourself and a way of life as well”.
For now, once the last customer is out the gate on Christmas Eve, John Paul is looking forward to putting his feet up and enjoying the turkey and ham.
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