ORGANIC FARMING

Organic Livestock Products

The most important organic livestock products demanding better export potential include organic meat, organic milk, organic egg and organic honey.

Organic Meat

Overall, organic beef production is very similar to conventional beef production. There are differences, however. Organic certification requires complete segregation from conventionally managed farms to uphold the integrity of organic production

A. Living conditions: Organic production methods require taking into account the physiological and behavioural welfare of livestock. Cattle are allowed free movement as well as exposure to fresh air and natural daylight. They also have regular access to fresh water and high quality feedstuffs. Appropriate bedding and resting areas must also be provided.

B. Feed: The diet being fed to cattle be nutritionally balanced and of high quality to meet the nutritional requirements of the animal. In organic livestock operations are designed to receive 100 per cent of their feedstuffs from organic sources. In organic production, vitamins, trace elements and pure amino acids may be used at the discretion of the certification body.

C. Livestock source: Cattle destined for beef production in an organic operation must be born and raised in an organic production unit. Breeding livestock may be obtained from a non-organic operation but cannot exceed 10% of the total number of breeding livestock. In addition, any breeding livestock coming from non-organic sources cannot be labeled or marketed as organic and cannot be sold as organic breeding stock unless held for more than 12 months.

D. Health: In an organic production facility, vaccination and the therapeutic use of veterinary drugs is restricted. Vaccines are permitted where the targeted diseases are communicable to livestock and cannot be treated by other means. Organic producers may use antibiotics to treat ill animals. If an animal is treated with antibiotics for an illness, beef from this animal may still be considered “organic beef”. However, no products from the livestock will be labelled or marketed as certified organic.

E. Breeding: It is recommended that breeds be selected for their suitability to their environment. The use of traditional mating is standard in both types of operations, although artificial insemination is permitted. Embryo transfer techniques, techniques involving genetically modified organisms (GMO) and reproductive hormones to trigger or synchronize estrus are not permitted in organic production.

F. Organic labeling: In order for beef to be labelled as organic, it must meet all terms of the National Standard. Under labelling regulations, beef that is produced under the supervision of an accredited certifying body will be labelled with the name or number of the independent certifying body that carried out the inspections.

Organic Milk

The organic milk production is generally based on high yielding dairy cows not differing in genetic setup from conventional breeds. European countries have identified 7 critical control points in organic milk production that need to be checked to ensure quality product, these include 1. Microbial toxins and abiotic contaminants; 2. Potential pathogens; 3. Natural plant toxicants; 4. Freshness and taste; 5. Nutrient content and food additives; 6. Fraud; 7. Social and ethical aspects.

A. Feed quality and composition

• Ensure that the feed storage facilities are kept clean, tidy and rodent free, ensure good control of humidity and temperature, even during adverse weather conditions.
• Check feed at harvest and each subsequent week for appearance (smell and colour). For dry materials (grain, hay), measure humidity and temperature and plot the values on a chart. Act immediately if the values become to high, before any sign of mould appear. Discard feed that smells or looks mouldy.
• Check with your feed supplier for results of analysis on dioxins and mycotoxins, and consider testing for dioxins in own produced feed if produced near an industrial site.
• Use as much grass as possible, fresh or as silage, preferably with a high content of aromatic herbs.

B. Management of cows

• Consider if a pasture is on or near former industrial sites or incinerators and if so, test for dioxin and other persistent chemicals in the soil, or in milk fat from old cows.
• Support efforts to provide information to consumers, e.g. a website or a farm visit scheme, where the agronomic and economic factors are explained (e.g. the low quality and price of beef from milking breeds) rather than hidden.
• Use a defined strategy of best practice for disease prevention, adapted to the climatic conditions and breed.
• Give higher priority to udder health, longevity and lifetime production than to annual yield, when devising production plans and selecting mothers for replacement stock.

C. Milk collection transport and processing at dairy

• Collect milk daily, or keep the newest milk separate from that from the previous day, at the farm and in the truck.
• Use only the freshest milk for fresh consumption, older milk for yoghurt, cheese etc.
• If technically possible, keep milk from different farmers separate.
• In parallel operations, as far as possible use dedicated trucks and other equipment for organic material, and markthem clearly, e.g. by painting in different colours.

D. Packing and transport to retails

• Include date of milking or specify that the milk was processed and packaged on the day of milking, or that it took no more than 10 days from milking to packaging.
• Identify the producer on each package by name (of enterprise or person), not only by an anonymous number. Include an address or phone number (defining area of origin, and perhaps a picture or a webpage with additional information). If milk from several farms is mixed, then the dairy should be the transparently identified unit.
• Pictures and other descriptions on the package or other promotion material (e.g. advertisements) should illustrate how the actual production facilities look, not a fairy tale landscape. A webpage can include illustrations from both the dairy and examples of typical farms.
• Define clearly which processes have been applied to the milk, including homogenisation, centrifugation, reconstitution, pasteurisation etc., even if this information is not formally required. Explain complex terms.

Organic eggs

The organic egg production, where the hens are kept in flocks and have access to an outdoor area, can be carried out quite efficiently in terms of egg production and feed conversion compared to conventional egg production in cages, although the feed consumption often is higher.

Organic guidelines are more stringent than free range. The pullets must be raised by certified organic production methods from birth. The layers are required to have outdoor access year round, or be fed sprouted grains for the period when indoors only. As well, all feed must be certified organic. No antibiotics or meat by-products are allowed in the feed and each bird is required to have two square feet of floor space. One can buy conventional chicks but they have to be raised organically from birth to be considered organic birds. Eggs produced in this system would be known as ‘organic’ eggs.

Chicks have traditionally been raised on finely ground boiled eggs mixed with oatmeal. This type of starter can be made on farm provided the eggs and oatmeal are certified. Also, any poultry diet can be improved significantly by the addition of cod liver oil. This may be too expensive, but in the past it was a cheap source of vitamins. Traditionally, many small poultry flocks were molted and kept over the second year. The birds are out of production for two months during the molting process and produce well for another ten months following the molt. These birds can be quite productive for two years and molting reduces input costs.

Organic honey

Organic Honey is regulated by strict set of guidelines, which covers not only the origin of bees, but also the sitting of the apiaries. The standards indicate that the apiaries must be on land that is certified as organic and be such that within a radius of 4 miles from the apiary site, nectar and pollen sources consist essentially of organic crops or uncultivated areas. Also enough distance must ne maintained from non agricultural production sources that may lead to contamination, for example from urban centres, motorways, industrial areas, waste dumps, waste incinerators.

Organic honey is the only commodity that India exports under organic livestock product to the European union. The bulk of this honey is exported to Germany wherein three Inspection agencies namely, IMO Inst fur Marketocologne, SGS Products and Process certification agency and SGS de Peru carries out the inspection and certification of the product.

Last updated: 04-1-2008