Turning organic, managing flies and bizarre remedies

This year still has a way to go, but already various events will make it memorable. It will be particularly memorable on this farm because, in June, we became organic.

Our first organic milk went off on 1 July. It has taken nearly two years to convert, but has not meant huge changes to how we farm. We have used our cattle manure, in its various forms, combined with poultry manure more carefully and effectively over the past few years and have been able to drastically reduce the amount of artificial fertiliser we use.

We kept spraying to a minimum anyway so, in most respects, we were well over halfway to organic. In fact, the biggest change is not being able to use our poultry manure because it is not organic. We have left broiler production and now produce point-of-lay pullets, which have more chance of moving to organic.

No clear guidance exists as to where Brexit will leave us, but we are obliged to make guesses as to the future. My guess is agricultural support – if such a thing is to exist – will be focused towards public good (whatever that is) and sustainability. Organic farming should fit that particular bill. Most of the land we farm is on relatively short lets on relatively high rents. It is my opinion these rents are driven by the support payments and not by any profitability in farming. In other words the owners of the land are the main beneficiaries of support. If support disappears, a rebalancing will occur, but, until then, I need to qualify for as much support as possible. We are seeking to reduce dry cow therapy, but we were doing that anyway and if we use antibiotics we use longer withdrawal periods.

Fly control

The biggest difference this year has been fly control. Flies around here in the hot, dry spell have been the worst we have known. In fact, they have been so bad in our kitchen I have considered using pour-on fly repellent on myself – and if it had not been for me being organic myself, I probably would have.

Our dry cows and in-calf heifers run a chain of small fields that start in a valley with plenty of trees and water – good fly country. They graze these at night; but, on a hot day, they are always to be found on the top field, which is on the 1,000ft mark with a breeze – so, in effect, they are doing a lot to help themselves.

But I would like to do more to help the milking cows. We are allowed to give them garlic licks, as long as the garlic is organic, but that doesn’t quite do it. I fully understand why they don’t want chemicals poured on the backs of lactating animals, but I still think the needs of the animal should come first – and it doesn’t feel like that.

It is no big problem looking after organic animals, but fields are a different matter. Weeds can be a big problem and foremost among these are docks. Thistles and nettles are a nuisance, but docks are by far the worst. I am told salt (which you can use) will kill docks, but I am not sure how and why, or how and when to apply it. I suspect the soil contains millions of dock seeds yet to germinate. The only comfort to be had is, as far as I know, I am yet to see docks growing on a beach.

Homeopathy

I used to go to quite a lot of organic dairy meetings when I was involved in a milk coop, but could never get organic members to go to industry meetings (to be fair, none lived that handy), so I used to go to keep an eye on their interests. In conversation with other dairy farmers, I used to be worried about their first inclination – which, in the case of infection, was to turn to homeopathic remedies. I don’t want to get involved in that debate, but it always seemed obvious to me if an animal was sick the last thing it needed was a week of suffering while its owner waited to see if a homeopathic treatment worked. It was all driven by a reluctance to use antibiotics, at the very least, as a last resort. To my mind this reluctance was, in some cases, so bad it was a welfare issue.

Years ago people would turn up to farms selling homeopathic remedies. They were often active farmers who were doing a bit of diversification, and they had the advantage of using the remedies themselves. I bought a couple of products from them – their enthusiasm was infectious and a bit of me hoped the product would do what they said it would. In most cases it would be so much easier, and probably cheaper, than conventional treatments, and much of what they sold had a preventive role to play that made it particularly attractive.

I recall a conversation I had with a good friend at the rugby club. He milked more cows than us, and his views and opinions on matters concerning the dairy industry were always worth hearing. I always thought he had a lot of time for my views too. We would get together in the clubhouse and put the world of dairy right. One day we discussed cell counts. Much skirting around the subject was made, but we both finally admitted to buying a homeopathic remedy that was claimed to reduce cell counts.

The more I think of it, the more bizarre it seems. You had to buy this very small bottle of liquid that was seriously expensive and put a tiny volume in the water troughs. I can’t remember how often or how much, but if I said a teaspoonful per trough once a week, I’d not be far out. This teaspoon was shared by more than 100 cows. My friend thought it was bizarre as well – “I put it in the troughs after the men had gone home, and I feel such a bloody fool doing it,” he said.