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Organic Farming Update
2014 will see the minimum organic content of grass seed mixtures, required to get an automatic derogation rise from 65% to 70%. This implies that there should be reasonable stocks of Organic grass seed available next year although it will be interesting to see whether or not stocks of the right species and the right varieties will be available.
In the past couple of years for instance, the lack of Organic Hybrid Ryegrass has meant that it has been difficult to produce an organic 3-4 year mixture, sticking to 65% organic and having the preferred quantity of Hybrid Ryegrass in the mixture. It has also meant that using the full 35% of non-organic content to have a reasonable Hybrid Ryegrass content in the mixture meant that organic clover had to be used and very little organic seed of UK recommended varieties of clover have been available.
Increasing the organic content of mixtures may also have an impact on price and based on this year’s prices, this would have added around £0.75 – £1.00 per acre to a short term mixture and around £1.50 – £2.00 per acre to a long term mixture. Whether the perceived increase in availability on organic seed will also have an impact on the price on organic grass seed, compensating for the increased content?
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