Factors to consider with organic sheep farming

The Irish organic sector has experienced a large influx of new farmers in recent years, with over 4,000 farmers now farming organically - including just over 2,000 who entered conversion in January 2023.

The number of organic sheep flocks in 2021 was approaching 700, with an estimated 66,000 breeding ewes, which will increase with the recent new entrants to the five scheme, Teagasc Organic Specialist, Elaine Leavy, told delegates at the recent series of National Sheep Conferences.

The area being farmed organically is estimated to be approximately 190,000ha, occupying over 3% of the total utilisable agricultural area (UAA) in the country - more than double the area compared to the previous decade. This compares with an average of 9.1% of UAA farmed organically across the European Union. The current Programme for Government aims to align the UAA under organic production in Ireland with the EU average.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is the competent authority for regulating the organic sector. They have designated Organic Control Bodies (OCBs) to provide an inspection and certification service for all organic farmers in Ireland. For full interpretation of the rules and regulations governing organic sheep farming, it is essential to study the ‘Organic Food and Farming Standards in Ireland’ document.

Payment rates

Farmers have to undertake a two-year conversion process when entering organics, Leavy explained, and once complete, their produce will receive full organic status. For drystock farms of 1-70ha, payment rates of €300/ha are available during the conversion period; this falls to €250/ha in years three, four and five, as Leavy explained: “Your land is undergoing organic conversion in year one and year two and hence you get a higher rate payment because you have no organic produce until the first 24 months have elapsed".

Farmers are also eligible for a participation payment on top of the area based payment to help with certification and advisory fees. In the initial year of conversion, this is €2,000 and between year two and five, it’s an annual payment of €1,400/year.

Factors to consider

There are a number of factors that should be taken into account when considering the transition to an organic sheep farming system, Leavy outlined, adding: “The land is the easy part to convert, you need to convert yourself first. You need to know what organics is about”.

Breeds and breeding

For farmers who are considering organics or who have recently made the switch, she noted that "breeding is no different than what you are doing already. In relation to organic farming, organic farmers would tend to look and check breeds that have a tolerance to worms,” she explained.

A crossbred ewe is ideal and a cross of any two existing breeds can produce good quality ewes. Research has shown that the Texel breed has substantially better resistance to parasites than the Suffolk. This gives the Texel a distinct advantage in an organic system and the breed also produces a lean carcass. The Belclare breed carries a proportion of Texel genes and therefore, she highlighted, has advantages over the Suffolk in parasite resistance. If aiming to lamb ewes early, it is an advantage to have Suffolk cross ewes, and a crossbred ewe can be mated with terminal rams to increase lamb growth rate.

 The Organic Specialist, who has worked in this field since 2007, also touched on replacement strategies, saying: “In relation to replacing breeding stock, the considerations are slightly different with an organic farmer. You can’t just go out and buy a nice pen of breeding ewes. In organics, the ideal would be to have a closed flock system; you would be minimising bringing in disease. However, in reality, that may not be the case. If you could not find organic breeding females, you can get permission from your certification body to buy in 20% of your adult flock.”

However, rams may be purchased from a non-organic farm for breeding purposes.

Flock health

Disease prevention is key to good flock health. At the application stage of converting to an organic system, a flock health plan is drawn up in consultation with a veterinary surgeon. The flock health plan addresses issues such as:

• What diseases are currently on the farm;
• How can these be controlled or prevented;
• What modifications can be made at farm level to reduce the risk of disease.

Operating a closed flock is a big help in keeping sheep healthy and measures such as double fencing boundaries and good general hygiene will reduce the risk of infection from various sources. A clean grazing policy minimises the risk of internal parasites, as routine dosing is not permitted in the organic system. A clean grazing plan provides clean or lightly infected pastures for grazing by the ewes and lambs during the first part of the grazing season. These are then changed to another pasture at weaning time. After weaning, lambs should continue to graze good quality pastures such as silage aftermaths which provide clean grazing and will greatly reduce parasite burden.

However, in instances where animals require treatment, there is the option to dose or treat but differences occur with the length of withdrawal periods, she added: “If you’ve got a sick animal or sick sheep in the morning, you go out and you treat that sick animal because animal health and welfare is one of the key principles in organic farming".

Diet

Grass is the main component of the diet in an organic sheep system. As 100% of the feed must be from organic or in-conversion sources, you need to produce your entire forage requirement on your farm. A rotational grazing system is preferred to set stocking, as it is easier to control grass quality.

However, organic grain and compound ration can be sourced when required, but Leavy explained that these 'hard' feeds can be very expensive and options like mixed farming - where a sheep enterprise and a tillage enterprise are present on the one farm - could be a suitable solution. On this, she said: "There are organic rations and compounds, but we have to look the other way to try and make it work".

Housing

Sheep can be outwintered, provided the farm remains cross compliant. If housed, they must be provided with a bedded solid floor area. Up to 50% of the total area can be slatted. The total space required per ewe is 1.5m²/head (minimum), Leavy explained, with an additional 0.35m²/lamb. Plenty of straw should be used to keep the lying area for the ewes dry at all times. Conventional straw may be used for bedding, as sufficient volumes of organic straw are not available.

Organic lamb sales

The Bord Bia ‘Organic Lamb Survey 2021’ indicates that of the organic lambs born in 2021, 53% were sold as finished lambs with 31% sold as store lambs and 16% used for other purposes (e.g. kept for breeding). The survey results indicated 49% of flock owners sold their finished lamb directly to the processor, with 13% sold through a producer group and 37% sold at marts or private sales.

Find more information on organic farming here.