Organics Newsletter - Winter 2022
Welcome to the Winter edition of our Teagasc Organics eNewsletter where you will receive the latest information and news from the Teagasc Organics Programme. Subscribe here to get it delivered directly to your inbox every quarter.
National Organic Open Day - OrganicBeef22
On September 28th last the National Organic Beef Open Day took place on the farm of John Purcell near Cashel in Co. Tipperary. The event which was jointly organised by Teagasc, DAFM and Bord Bia was a huge success with an crowd of in excess of 1200 people attending. At the link below you can view the event booklet, videos from the day and the forum which was addressed by Minister Charlie McConalogue. The forum chaired by Damien O'Reilly included panel speakers Joe Bourke, Bord Bia; Catherine Roche, Irish Country Meats; Jack Nolan, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; Pat Dillon, Teagasc and host farmer John Purcell
Find out more and watch video interviews with the researchers
Podcasts
Martin Bourke is a specialist tillage, organic advisor with Teagasc and he joins Michael Hennessy on the latest Tillage Edge podcast to discuss some of the pros and cons of converting to an organic, tillage farm.
Listen here
On this episode, Elaine Leavy outlines the changes to the new organic scheme opening in October for 8 weeks and she highlights the steps involved in conversion as well as the different payment rates.
Listen here
Organic Specialist from Teagasc Joe Kelleher goes lists the financial breakdown for each area of farming including the higher rate of grant payments that will be available in the next Common Agricultural Policy.
Listen here
Organic on-farm Multi Species Sward trial, Kilsheelan, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
Teagasc have teamed up with seed company, DLF and organic dairy farmers, Pat & Mark Mulrooney to investigate the on farm performance of Multi Species Swards, especially in periods of drought.
Read more and watch the video here
Organic Signpost Farmers
Our organic farmers participating the Teagasc signpost programme have featured prominently over the past few weeks
Kay O'Sullivan
Kay O'Sullivan is organically farming over 35 Ha near Mourneabbey Co Cork. Along with suckler cows she also has 75 ewes and 11Ha of Forestry.
Read more about Kay
Ken Gill
Ken Gill farms full time on his own in Clonbullogue, Co Offaly. He is trading as Ballydermot Organic Farm Ltd. Ken’s breeding season started on 2nd November and is going well.
Read more about Ken
Joseph Egan
Joseph Egan is an organic dairy farmer near Ballygar, Co. Galway, milking 65 cows at present of which 20 are heifers, with all milk supplied to Aurivo.
Read more about Joseph
QQI 25 hour Organic Farming Principles Courses
Our specialists were busy over the Autumn with another 100 farmers completing their QQI 25 hour organic farming principles course. Organic modules were also delivered to students in Kildalton, Ballyhaise, UCD and University of Galway. Anyone interested in completing the 25 hour organic farming principles course can register their interest here
Upcoming Events
A spring series of organic webinars are planned. Topics will include; converting beef housing to meet organic standards; finishing lambs organically and sheep health issues; growing red clover silage to finish beef cattle. Watch this space for more details.
A field day will be held on Thursday, 16 March at 10.30am in Teagasc, Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford in association with the 3rd Global Soil Biodiversity Conference. This field day will demonstrate the practices and technologies that can be adopted on farms to assess and enhance soil health.
Register to Attend
Past Events
Our organic team were exceptionally busy at the National Ploughing Championships in September last with huge interest from farmers. We even had some quite high profile farmers visit our outdoor plots at the Teagasc stand and the NOTS organised organic tent
Autumn series of organic information meetings
Over 1,000 people attended our series of organic meetings that were held across the country during October and early November.
Organic walk on the farm of Tadhg Halpin in Toonagh Co. Clare
A crowd of 200 people attended this walk to view the changes Tadhg Halpin was going to have to make to convert his farm to organic production
Teagasc Organics on Twitter
Keep up to date with all the latest news and updates directly from the Teagasc Organics team.
