Animal health and husbandry

Organic systems encourage positive and dynamic animal health by having regard to the behavioural patterns and basic needs of the animals. Animals should be sustained in good health by organic management practices rather than relying exclusively on veterinary medicine. Basically this is due to lower stocking rates out in the fields. Where conventional farming could carry between 6 and 8 ewes per acre, we carry 4 ewes to the acre.

A conventional beef suckler cow would require one and a quarter acres per cow. We need 2 acres. Again, in the buildings and housing in the winter, organic cows require 7 square metres of bedding space rather than 5-6 square metres for conventional farming.

Similarly for housing the sheep, organic ewes require 1.35 square metre per ewe, and a maximum of 40 ewes at lambing per pen, compared to conventional farming with 1 square metre per ewe and up to 100 ewes per lambing pen.

These lower stocking rates result in a greatly reduced veterinary bill as the livestock is less pressurised or stressed in the buildings. Currently our veterinary bill is one third less than when we were conventional. If illness does occur the aim must be to complement the animal’s natural powers of recovery, and correct the imbalance which created the disorder, rather than simply deal with the symptoms alone.

Conventional treatment is never withheld if an animal is ill, suffering or considered by a veterinary surgeon unlikely to recover without treatment.

Antibiotics are seldom used. By the whole organic rotation and stocking densities, we simply negate the need for the reliance on antibiotics. Each animal is numbered with an ear tag, so that when we have to use antibiotics for an individual animal we can identify it easily.

The withdrawal period for the prescribed treatment is trebled for organic animals, for example the manufacturers’ recommended withdrawal period of 28 days for a product now becomes 84 days. During this period the animal is classed as non-organic, cannot be sold as organic, and our veterinary records are kept to guarantee this.

The use of complementary therapies such as homeopathy are also practised. The great thing about the lower stocking rates, good nutrition and the low-stress environments, is that we rarely have to treat the animals.