February 27, 2021 9:00 am
“For us, there was no question as to how we would farm – farming organically was a given,” said Mimi Crawford who, along with her husband, Owen, farms 28ac in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary.
“We are interested in producing healthy soils; healthy pastures; healthy animals; and healthy foods. The only way to do this is without artificial inputs and working within the natural limits of the ecosystem,” said the Cloughjordan couple, who were selected as February Farming for Nature ambassadors.
“Owen’s grandfather originally owned the 28ac that we steward and we inherited the land from Owen’s mother in 2014. Neither of us really come from a conventional farming background,” Mimi said.
Texas Longhorn
The Texas Longhorn needs little introduction, but this breed is often misunderstood because of the rise of modern Longhorns. These modern hybrids captivate people with their exceptionally wide horn spreads. Often referred to as “Wronghorns” by traditional Longhorn breeders, these modern cattle are crosses of the original Longhorns with other large-horned breeds, such as the Ankole-Watusi or the English Longhorn. The historic Texas Longhorn is of Iberian origin, and these cattle are still the useful, rough-and-tumble breed we know from history. They can begin calving at 2 years of age, and can produce a calf every year well into their 20s.
Mark s cows are on ad-lib baled silage.
This week, we headed to a dry and frosty Caithness to catch up with Mark and Shona MacKay at Greenvale on the very north coast of Scotland.
The 368ha unit has a mixture of land types, from good arable land that grows barley, to a sandy hill where Mark outwinters cattle, through to bog land that has been put into environmental schemes.
Mark and Shona have been increasing the productivity of the farm during the Farm Profit Programme.
The key to this has been expanding the suckler herd. In 2018, the MacKays registered 159 calves, while in 2020 this jumped to 191 calves. Explaining the rise, Mark said: “This year [2020] we registered 170 calves and as part of our expansion plan, we purchased 21 cows with calves at foot, giving 191 calves. Fourteen sets of twins also helped increase the number of calves registered.”
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