Growing Organics: Combining a sheep and tillage enterprise in Co. Laois

Operating a mixed sheep and tillage farm in Errill, Co. Laois, the Stanley family have just marked their first decade of being fully certified organic farmers.
A host of a recent Growing Organics demonstration farm walk, the farm is now in the stewardship of Jason Stanley, his wife Grace and son Jacob, who took the reins in 2017.
The Stanley family, including Jason’s parents George and Shirley, began looking at organic farming as an option in 2010. At that time, the high cost of concentrates and labour in their intensive sheep system had become prohibitive. After careful consideration and attending a Teagasc Introduction to Organic Production course, the decision was made to take the organic option. Since then, the farm has undergone many changes, most notable of which has been the change to the production system.
All in one block, the farmed area stretches to 78ha; 65ha of this block is owned, with the remaining 13ha being leased. Prior to the conversion to organics, the majority of the farm was in permanent pasture and carried a flock of 800 breeding ewes. Now a diverse arrange of grasses – multispecies and red and white clover swards – provide forage from a flock of 400 March-lambing ewes, while a tillage enterprise of approximately 28ha is present.
Table 1: Planned 2023 land use details
Land use | Hectares | Use |
---|---|---|
Spring barley | 12 | Organic seed barley for Boortmalt |
Spring oats | 18 | Flahavans and feed |
Spring beans | 1.6 | Feed |
Forage rape | 8 | Grazing for lambs |
Multispecies | 18.4 | Grazing and silage |
Grass-red clover | 7 | Grazing and silage |
Grass | 13 | Grazing and silage |
Total | 78 |
The sheep enterprise
The ewe flock is built on strong maternal genetics, with Belclare x New Zealand Suffolk being the dam breed of choice. These ewes are mated to either Charollais rams to produce factory lambs, or Belclare tups to breed the next generate of the flock.
The ewes are housed in mid-November in straw-bedded sheds. Ewes are fed for eight weeks prior to lambing and the diet consists of red clover silage, oats and beans, and is tailored to single/twin/triplet bearing ewes. This total mixed ration (TMR) is fed with a diet feeder, which Jason has found to be a huge benefit in terms of “creating a more efficient diet for the ewes, saving on feeding time and helping in terms of safety, as there is no need to enter pens with feed and risk being knocked over”. No concentrate feed is purchased for his flock. The growing of beans has been a new development on the farm.
Marianne Mulhall (pictured above with Jason Stanley), Teagasc Specialised Organic Advisor to the farm, commented further: “The beans are a really interesting addition to the farm. Jason had been buying in organic soya in order to have a protein element in the sheep’s diet. Anybody that is already in organics knows that organic soya is a huge cost to a farm, so if there’s any way that we can limit the cost, it is well worth looking at. By producing beans here, Jason doesn’t need to buy in that expensive soya.”
A five-week lambing spread is targeted, starting in mid-March. Once completed, Jason can focus on the task of establishing spring crops on his farm. This also coincides with the start of grass growth, with ewes and lambs turned out as they lamb.
Marketing of lambs
Drafting commences from early July and lambs are marketed through the Laois/Offaly Producers Group to Irish Country Meats in Camolin. Lamb liveweight at slaughter is typically 38-44kg. Later lambs on the farm are finished on forage crops of fodder rape, of which Jason has 8ha established in 2023.
Jason told those in attendance of his marketing strategy, adding: “If you can plan when you will have your lambs finished, you can get the premium. I have to book lambs in at least two or three weeks in advance, sometimes six weeks. It’s all about talking to factory to see when they actually need the lambs.
“Talking to the processor is the biggest thing. You have to take responsibility for your own sales in organics, you need to step up and communicate with who you are selling to and plan with them. Talk to them and find out when they want lambs; you could be planning a year in advance sometimes.”
By communicating with the processor, Jason is able to alter the flow of lamb sales. This is achieved by storing lambs on grass for a few weeks before moving them onto forage rape for the final finishing period. By utilising the forages grown on farm as efficiently as possible, Jason is able to avoid having to purchase concentrates to finish his lambs. Particular attention is also placed on the weight at which lambs are introduced to these crops, with 38-40kg being targeted to ensure a quick finish. Weight gains up to this point are achieved from grazed grass.
Forage crops play an invaluable role in Jason’s system. Not only are these crops established when reseeding – for a targeted grazing in August – but they are also sown as a catch crop on the tillage area following harvest.
The use of such crops, along with grazed grass, means that Jason is able to finish the lambs with zero concentrate input. On this he said: “Forage crops are the cheapest way for me to finish lambs and I’m roughly finishing 30 lambs/ac. I sow 3kg of seed per acre under a derogation and it’s costing me €24/ac in seed cost.”
Grassland management
Sheep are grazed on a rotational basis around the farm using a paddock system. Sheep graze pastures of grass-red clover, multispecies and grass-white clover. Topping is carried out as necessary to improve grassland performance and to control weeds.
Clover drives grass growth on an organic farm, by fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere and is a key way for Jason to get nitrogen into the soil. There are two main types of clover - white clover and red clover. Since the farm entered organic conversion in 2011, a large proportion of the farm has been reseeded. The mixture is suitable for silage and grazing. Currently, there is 7ha of grass-red clover swards on the farm. Along with grass-clover mixes, Jason has also established 18.4ha of multispecies grassland. Such swards contain a diverse range of grasses, herbs and clovers.
Profitability of the sheep farming system
With 43.5ha of the entire farming area dedicated to sheep, attendees at the farm walk were given an overview of the profits achieved from the sheep and tillage farming systems in 2022.
Stocked at 156kg/ha of organic nitrogen on this area, which is high when compared to both a typical organic and conventional sheep farm, Jason’s primary aim is to achieve a good level of production.
This is reflected in the gross output from the sheep enterprise, which stood at €1,992/ha in 2022. Total variable costs for the sheep farming system were €969/ha. Although concentrates are not purchased from outside of the farm for the sheep enterprise, both cereals and forage produced by the tillage enterprise and used by the sheep are included here – standing at approximately €320/ha.
Fixed costs for the sheep enterprise in 2022 were recorded at €624/ha, leaving a net margin of €399/ha before the Organic Farming Scheme payment of €250/ha.
Commenting on the financial results for Jason’s farm, Teagasc Organics Advisor Cathal McCauley (pictured above with Jason Stanley) said: “The results we see here are not typical of many organic or conventional sheep farms in that there is a high level of gross output.
“Typically in organic farming systems, you would see lower stocking rates and lower costs. When aiming for a profit from organic farming, there’s two ways of doing it; have a good level of production, like Jason here, but with relatively high variable costs, or have a lower level of production with much lower costs.”
As mentioned, Jason also operates a tillage enterprise in conjunction with his sheep farming enterprise. For more information on the productivity and performance of this enterprise, click here.
First Growing Organics farm walk
This walk was the first of a series of demonstration farm walks that will take place across the network of Growing Organics farms. The Growing Organics Programme – led by Teagasc – will run for five years and will promote the adoption of best practice at farm level to increase the future viability and sustainability of the Irish organic sector.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett (pictured below) opened the event, where she said: “We have really seen an upsurge in organic farming over the last year or so. This is the first of the Growing Organics walks and it is a great initiative between my department and Teagasc. The programme will have 12 farms and they are going to be monitored over the next five years. Such events are a really important part of what we need to do in order to understand and share the knowledge of farmers already involved in organics.”
Teagasc Director of Knowledge Transfer, Stan Lalor said: “Teagasc is delighted to be involved with the Growing Organics Programme. Over the next five years, we will be featuring the 12 farms on a number of occasions. From a Teagasc perspective, we very much want not just to respond to the opportunity that is organics but to lead it as well. We now have advisors in Teagasc who organics is their job and that is a very significant development.
“We want to be there to support farmers who are already in organics and are looking at ways of doing it better, more profitable or more sustainable, but also people who are new to organics and are looking at it as a very important opportunity in the future in terms of farm diversification.”
Also read: Management key to maximise lamb performance from brassica crops
Also read: Pay heed to grass and clover varieties when choosing multispecies swards