21/11/2023
If you want to know how we produce our beef, do read on. The short answer though is that we respect the life on our farm, all of which has a role to play in creating balance and fertility.
Our cattle’s diet is 100% forage based. In the summer they browse not just the grasses and herbs in the fields, but they enjoy mouthfuls of hedge, bramble and nettle tops. During the winter they are fed our own silage. Our Irish Moiled cattle were bred to thrive on poor pasture so they don’t need any grain or meal.
We don’t use pour ons on our cattle to protect them against flies, nor do we use chemical wormers: it is better to have clean dung for the earthworms and dung beetles which are both great at aerating and fertilising the soil. When the flies are bad, the cattle can be moved early to clean pasture, or grazing paddocks can be selected to make use of the wind that day. Faecal analysis has never shown our stock to be affected by worms and now plants with anti worming properties have spread widely in many of our fields.
We haven’t needed any antibiotics for around 6 years. Homeopathic pills are our main help when an animal develops an infection. For general unwellness, we would make a herbal spray from plants on the farm.
We don’t spray any weedkiller, but handweed any ragweed from the silage fields. Thistles have a tendency to spread densely in some places, though the oldest of those patches disappeared last year, by some natural process. I learned to appreciate the thistles when I saw their root structure: they look like they could break up any compacted soil.
We don’t buy any fertliser as they destroy much of the soil’s natural fertility and leave the soil dependent on more bought fertiliser. We promote fertility by encouraging worms and dung beetles, also by limiting compaction due to driving on the land, especially when the soil is wet. Compacted soils can be so dense that even water soluble salts will build up rather than flowing downhill. Moving the cattle nearly every day prevents plants from being overly weakened and encourages a diverse range of plants which can then work cooperatively to utilise the soil’s nutrients more effectively. Plants also work cooperatively with the soil life, including fungi. Reintroducing a range of fungi from local non farmed lands was a game changer for the plant growth.
It has taken years for me to begin to appreciate how everything is connected. Looking after any one thing strengthens the whole.
