Organic at Caergynant

We have decided to have a go at Organic Farming at one of our farms, Caergynant.

There are several reasons for this....

1. The price of fertiliser has almost doubled during the last twelve months. As you may or not know, sheep farmers have not been making a profit on their sheep from traditional farming practices over the past 10 years or so, and to carry on with the same methods without looking at your outputs is madness, especially with core costs such as food, oil, etc ever rising, it is the recipe for even grater losses which most farms can not sustain in the long run. (or even the short run!)


2. Our farming system is not far from Organic presently. This means little changes to our present systems. (Our fertiliser usage per acre was very low originally, and our stocking rates were not high.)


3. We retail our end product ourselves, and have hopes of the farm shop, which we are opening in partnership with Kath & Gareth Griffiths, will be able to take in some of our end organic product. We have also already invested in an on line shop via our website so we can carry organic lamb to serve our Internet customers demands, with no extra outlay.


4. The local abattoir which we use is already registered to slaughter organic stock.


5. The Welsh assembly government is offering significant financial input to help us convert.

I now just have to get through all the paperwork which goes with non-simitaneous conversion (have to get used to using all the jargon - just what LEAF tell us not to do..........)