The National Organic Beef Open Day is set to take place on the farm of John Purcell in Ross, Golden, Cashel, Co. Tipperary tomorrow (Wednesday, September 28).
The event has been jointly organised by Teagasc, Bord Bia and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
It will get underway at 10:00a.m and will draw to a close at 3:00p.m.
Speaking to Agriland ahead of the event, the host farmer, John Purcell said: “There are a large number of beef farmers who are considering converting to organic.
“There have been many fantastic organic farm walks across the country over the past few months and we’re hoping farmers will come along to this one and decide to come onboard.”
He added that the event will answer any questions farmers may have and outlined there will be a range of demonstrations and trade stands at the event.
Included in the 24 information stands at the event will be:
- Irish Organic Association (IOA);
- Organic Trust;
- DAFM;
- Teagasc;
- Bord Bia;
- Agricultural Consultants’ Association (ACA);
- Seed companies;
- Good Herdsmen Organic Meats;
- Water and wetland management.
The date for this event is significant as it will be just in advance of the opening of the next application window for the Organic Farming Scheme in October.
The topics for discussion on the day will include:
- Beef production systems (beef stock demonstrations);
- Organic markets;
- Financial supports;
- Clover;
- Soil health;
- Farm buildings for organic beef production;
- Economics;
- Habitats and biodiversity;
- An organic food village with exhibitors.
John Purcell’s farm is not exclusively focussed on beef production. The farmer has also incorporated biodiversity corridors/habitats and planted over 10,000 trees in the last three years to sequester carbon and is planning to claim a carbon-neutral status by 2025.
Take a more in-depth look at John Purcell’s farm by clicking here.
Treble organic beef production
Speaking to Agriland at Ploughing 2022, Bord Bia meat and livestock senior manager, Joe Burke, stated: “There are targets nationally for organic production to treble in the next few years and given the level of supports that are there and incentives, hopefully the sector can grow gradually.
“There is a really strong interest in Irish organic beef”, he added, but noted that “the bottleneck has tended to be our production”.
“There are about 11,500 organic cattle slaughtered in Ireland/year and there is a market for more than that,” he said.