CAFRE host German Organic Farmers

CAFRE, Greenmount Campus recently hosted a visit for 26 organic milk producers from Northern Germany as part of an organised study tour to Northern Ireland. The aim of the tour was to develop the knowledge and understanding of milk production systems and organic management in Northern Ireland.

Otto Volling, an organic milk adviser and Frida Brennecke, a student specializing in organic production accompanied the tour party. Herd size among the visiting farmers ranged from 30 to 180 cows yielding from 5000-8000L/cow.

The group visited 5 organic milk producers in the province and were impressed by the scale and quality of management demonstrated on host farms. Benchmarking figures were presented by CAFRE development adviser David Alexander and detailed discussion followed. The farmers were surprised to learn about the variation in net margin among organic milk producers, attributed in most cases to volume of milk produced and overhead costs.

Quality of forage, level of concentrates and efficiency measures were topics raised on all the farms visited. The establishment and management of clover was of particular interest to the farmers with a range of methods discussed.

On the first evening of the tour, Roy Mc Cracken, a director with Emerald Organics delivered a presentation on the history of the company, how it has developed and his vision for the future in terms of organic milk production.

The last visit of the tour took place on CAFRE’s organic unit at Greenmount Campus. Manus Mc Henry, Senior Organic Adviser, explained the aims and objectives of the unit and presented information on benchmarking and technology transfer work. Unfortunately the weather limited the time spent on the unit and further questions and discussion took place on the coach.

Feedback overall was very positive from the tour party and Otto Volling, was keen that farmers from Northern Ireland visit organic farmers in Germany in the near future.    

German organic farmers visited the organic unit at Greenmount Campus, CAFRE