A party of four dairy farmers visited Northern Ireland on 29th and 30th of April to see organic dairy farming in practice.
They were accompanied by DAFF's Agricultural Advisor Chris Kneale, Countryside Care Scheme Project Officer Kim Etherton, Brenda Cannell, MHK, Member for Forestry and Janet Bridle, Chairman of the Manx Organic Network.
The visit was designed to provide ideas, facts and inspiration for Manx farmers interested in the possibility of adopting organic farming principles. Three farms were visited, together with a creamery and a Plant Testing Station.
Organic dairy farmers have to meet a number of criteria in order to achieve accreditation and various aspects of these were discussed.
Managing the grasslands which provide food for the cows is a big challenge as chemical fertilisers cannot be used. Solutions include sewing nitrogen fixing clover with the grass and using slurry from the cows.
Both techniques can be used by non-organic farmers to reduce their dependence on increasingly expensive fertilisers. Farmers also heard about the use of homeopathic remedies to treat some common cow ailments.
The use of technology was demonstrated as one farm uses a robotic milking station to milk their cows and will soon be using a robot to distribute food to the cows when they are indoors. The cows could also make use of a sensor-driven back scratcher which has apparently proved very popular.
Mrs Brenda Cannell, MHK said 'The Department is pleased to have supported this fact finding trip and plans to offer other opportunities for Manx farmers to explore new ideas which could be put into practice on the Island, to the benefit of consumers and agricultural businesses.
With regard to this particular trip, the Department is keen to see the organic sector flourish here and this visit is one of a number of initiatives designed to facilitate this. We have recently published proposed amendments to the Organic Farming Scheme which will raise payments to farmers converting to organic production methods and include horticulture as a sector for support.
The amendments will be presented to Tynwald in July and I am hopeful that it will be approved and will lead to more farmers considering a move to organic production'.
