Features
Fields of Gold
Organic cereal production in Ireland is low and few farmers, apart from those with a history of tillage from pre-conversion days, attempt to grow any.
Sean Deegan attributes this to fear on the part of farmers. "The tradition of cereal growing is lost. The knowledge isn't there any longer and farmers are afraid of weed problems", he says. "The equipment isn't available in non-tillage areas and investing in machinery doesn't make sense on a small scale".
Conversion shock
Sean was one of those conventional tillage farmers and began converting his farm in 1994 and, even though he would have preferred to convert in stages, joining the REPS forced him to complete the transition in one go. "It was like jumping in at the deep end but we felt it was time to make a change", he says. What finally convinced him to convert was the very type of farming he was engaged in. "My father did some contract work and he was one of the first in our area to get a sprayer", he explains. "When I started farming in the mid eighties I did a lot of spraying. As the years went on more and more chemicals were used for everything. It was horrific what was going out on the crops. I knew it couldn't be right for the environment or your health".
Sean farms 87 acres near Kilcormac in Co. Offaly. Of this, 50 acres are under cereal crops and he grows wheat, oats, barley, beans and a few acres of turnips and potatoes. He keeps 35 ewes and had 50 lambs to sell when I visited him in mid-August.
Set aside land is rotated and some relaxation of the rules means that organic farmers can now make some use of the land. "I can cut a fodder crop for my own use which is a great improvement in the scheme" Sean says, "and it means that you need not be growing a crop of weeds".
Combating weeds
Organic cereal growing is not simple Sean feels and is a lot harder work than conventional production. Weed control and maintaining fertility are big issues. "We have made as much investment as we could afford so far", he says "and this year I would have liked to buy an Einboch weeder but machinery is very costly. Weeds are not as strong without the high nitrogen input but they still cause problems when combining", he explains. "Soft weeds make a mess of the combine and clog it up. It also makes it more difficult to dry the grain". For many years the entire Deegan family spent hours turning grain to get it sufficiently dry and Sean recalls losing tonnes of grain because he didn't have storage. "You need proper facilities for handling grain", he says "and we built a grain store a few years ago. Investing in a drier made a huge difference and what took days in the past can now be done in hours".
The grant scheme is not a lot of use to farmers like him, Sean feels. "If you are already borrowed to the hilt you can't go out and invest in plant and machinery before qualifying for a grant", he says. "If the government is serious about encouraging organic farming grants should be a lot higher – up to 90% or there should be some type of interest free loan scheme".
Future problems
Many farmers complain that the price of organic grain is high relative to conventional but Sean thinks that, considering the yield and labour input, the price is fair. "If you are a conventional grain grower you will have a higher investment in inputs but you don't need the handling facilities. Everything goes straight to the grain merchant", he says. "There is a lot of handling in organic grain. It has to be dried, stored, cleaned before bagging for customers and then there is the cost of transport and delivery. Added to that you have much lower yields".
The question of yields is Sean's main concern. He is facing two major problems that he feels will dictate reducing his production over the next few years. "I don't have enough land to maintain the rotation of crops that I currently grow and I am facing a declining rate of fertility on the land", he says. Acquiring more land is not an option. "Farmers are not keen to rent land for organic cereals because they are worried about weed control", he says. In the past, he could import farmyard manure but this is no longer possible because of GM content in conventional FYM. "I've built up a very good customer base over the years", he says. "I have a lot of small scale customers who take grain for poultry, pigs and all manner of livestock. If I cut back I will be disappointing a lot of people".
The Deegan family is currently looking at the options available for diversifying into other areas of organic production if cereal growing is reduced. "We will put more land back into grass and possibly take on more livestock", Sean says, "and we are looking at a small poultry business. The labour element must be manageable because the family are now grown up and gone on to other things".
Successful veg
The other enterprises on the farm work well and being able to sell his potatoes and turnips directly makes growing them a viable proposition. "I started out growing them for a supermarket but when centralised purchasing came in we were out", he says. Sean now sells directly through a market stall. "Turnips are an ideal crop. What isn't sold the sheep will eat". Keeping sheep is a bit of work he feels but they are useful to keep fields clean after harvesting. He would like to sell his meat directly to get the best possible price but he has one difficulty. "I hate parting with the sheep", he says. "I become attached to them and even sending them off to the factory is hard".
Each year Sean saves his own seed because the availability of organic seed is very limited. "I would like to get some of the older varieties back and trial them" he says. "The problem is that so little research is being done and the pool of knowledge is small. There is very little information on green manures in cereal production and the cost of seed prohibits a farmer from experimenting".
More help
His advice to any intending tillage farmer is to ensure that they have adequate land to maintain a good rotation; otherwise weeds will become a major problem. Keeping fertility levels up is more problematic with the difficulty in sourcing GM free FYM.
He is disappointed with the overall level of support for organic farming, particularly for small scale producers. "The schemes appear to be geared to large scale farmers and there is very little in the way of education or training for those interested in converting. A proper support system just isn't there", he says. "We should have a programme of education in schools to increase awareness of how food should be produced. People aren't aware of the quality and taste of organic food".
Sean has no regrets about becoming organic even though he believes he works a lot harder than his conventional counterpart. "None of us feel that we earn enough but financial gain isn't everything. I have the satisfaction of knowing that I produce good wholesome food and we have met and made friends with a lot of like minded people that we would never otherwise have encountered", he says.
Following an online vote, the new EU organic logo has been selected. The winner of the competition is the leaf shape...
