Organic Dairy Farming

Summary

The technical guide addresses the issues relevant to the organic dairy sector sector, acknowledging the questions that are frequently directed to the technical ‘Helpline’ of Organic Centre Wales. It is intended as a guide document for those with an interest in organic dairy production and points the way to those who wish to look in greater depth at the issues raised.
This guide is in three interrelated parts. The first part, written principally by Richard Weller of IGER, deals primarily with technical issues of grassland and dairy herd management, and provides practical information for dairy farmers on key factors influencing the performance of the system and also provides options for changing to alternative strategies. It draws heavily on studies at carried out at IGER’s organic dairy farm, Ty Gwyn, which have been conducted over a number of years and funded by a number of awards. Ty Gwyn is a Farming Connect Organic Development Farm and is frequently used to demonstrate good practice.
Part 2 is a review of the financial performance of dairy farming in Wales is provided by Andrew Jackson, of the Institute of Rural Sciences, University of Wales Aberystwyth. It is based mainly on two DEFRA funded studies:
• Data for organic farms extracted from the main Farm Business Survey in Wales
• A four year project focusing specifically on organic farms, drawing on all Farm Business Survey data collected for organic farms across England and Wales as well as independently collected data.
From these data, it is possible to derive whole farm income data, gross margin and cost of production data to give an overview of the economics of organic dairy farming in Wales for the latest recorded financial periods (2004/05).
The third and final part consists of 2 farmer case studies, which put many of the issues discussed in parts 1 and 2 in the context of individual farm businesses. We are grateful for the co-operation of the Fordham and Ridge families.