Teagasc, Bord Bia and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) are jointly organising a National Organic Beef Open Day at the farm of John Purcell, located in Ross, Golden, Cashel, Co. Tipperary (E25 RP20).
The event takes place on Wednesday, September 28, from 10:00a.m to 3:00p.m.
The open day is aimed at providing up-to-date best practice for existing organic farmers and will also provide all farmers with the opportunity to see an organic beef farm in operation and discuss all aspects of production and marketing of the beef produced on the farm.
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.
950ac organic farm
John took over the running of his farm from his late father Michael Purcell in 1997. The farm had always been associated with a livestock enterprise and in 1998, John converted tit to organic and continued with the beef production model.
The overall farm operation of 950ac consists of owned and leased land and all together produces over 1,000 finished beef cattle/annum for the market.
Today, the farm walk is on a block of 500ac.
This farm produces most of the winter feed for the operation and houses 600 cattle during the winter months. Combination crops and clover grass swards are grown here as part of the winter feeding system.
John’s farm is not exclusively focusing on beef production; he 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.
Many stakeholders operating in the organic sector including certification, education and retail will be in attendance on the day, and will provide a one-stop-shop for farmers to cover all aspects of organic farming, from technical knowledge to education, to market development to financial supports, and much more.
Teagasc has enhanced its organic specialist and organic advisory teams and they will provide detailed information to all farmers attending on the opportunities.
The final part of the open day will feature an open forum to discuss the future of the Irish Organic beef sector. The forum will be chaired by Damien O’Reilly and panellists will include a wide cross-section of stakeholders from the Irish Organic sector.
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.
For more information or to secure a place at this event, click here.
