Organic Dairy Sector Working Together

No one can be in any doubt that the past 12 months have been tough for the organic dairying sector.

Weather patterns in the form of extended dry spells, in both spring and summer, complicated grazing management and limited output from grass and forage. On top of that, feed input prices were at historic highs, driven up in part to covid-related port congestion in the far east, and in part by the war in Ukraine. Finally, many retailers appeared to preserve high margins on their organic milk, whilst accepting lower margins on their conventional offer, which created a big price differential in stores, to the detriment of the organic sector.

Organic Sector Dairy Event

Whilst we can’t do anything about some of these problems, there are ways in which we can help, and we can do this as a sector working together. An example if this is the upcoming Organic Dairy Resilience Webinar on Wednesday April 12, which is being run, with our full support, by the English Organic Forum. Details of the event are being sent out by Soil Association Certification via direct email to all diary licensees. If you’re an organic dairy farmer, you can book a place on eventbrite.

The importance of keeping networked

Webinars have become a feature of all our farming lives now and do allow us to get people together quickly in a way that is much more difficult with on-farm events. We hope that the format will prove to be effective, bearing in mind the time pressures that we are all under at this time of year.

However, there are great advantages to attending on-farm events through the growing season, and we would hope that you will be able to get out to join in with our events, peer to peer learning networks, and trial work that Innovative Farmers are engaged with around feed and forage. It is really therapeutic to be able to talk with fellow farmers in these networks and at events, and being able then to take home ideas to help build resilience into your own farm.

Let’s hope that we get a productive growing season in 2023, and that the worst of the supply chain turbulence is over.

Keep in touch

To keep in touch with news from the Farming and Land Use team, sigh up to our Organic Farming News monthly newsletter.