Are all lambs reared organically?
In the case of lamb, people sometimes say “..but surely, all lambs are naturally reared anyway, so what’s so special about organic ?”. Whilst lamb production is less intensive than say pig or poultry production, there are nevertheless some aspects of conventional lamb production which are not allowed on organic farms.
lamb & ewe at Graig Farm For example, in order to control external parasites, sheep must he dipped in an insecticide. It is now being realised that the most common conventional dips contain potentially dangerous chemicals (organo-phosphorus compounds), which have never been allowed to be used under organic regulations. If organic farmers have parasite problems in their sheep, they must use other chemicals which are safer, but unfortunately more expensive, than the organo-phosphates.
Internal parasitic worms are another headache for any sheep farmer. The conventional doctrine for control is to routinely dose the animals with drugs. The organic approach is to say that prevention is better than cure, and that proper rotation of pastures should enable the farmer to avoid re-infection of his sheep flock.
The consequence of the organic method of farming is often a drastic reduction of the number of sheep per acre, which together with more expensive external parasite control, means that to remain profitable, the organic farmer must receive a premium price for his lamb.
“At lambing time, the shepherd had to be with his flock all the time. This meant that he could not attend church on Sunday. So that this would be known on Judgement Day, he would be buried in his smock with a piece of wool between his fingers.”
No comments:
Post a Comment