Cloughjordan farmers leading the way on Farming For Nature
A farmer from Cloughjordan will speak at the National Farming For Nature Festival
Cloughjordan’s Mimi Crawford is one of the speakers at this year’s National Farming For Nature Festival, taking place over two days beginning on June 22.
Mimi runs Crawford’s Farm in Cloughjordan alongside her husband Owen, where they manage a small-scale organic farm built on diversity, animal integration and local food production.
The farm produces raw dairy products processed on-site, while rotational grazing and integrated livestock systems help create a balanced farm ecosystem.
Over twenty-eight acres, the farm is certified organic where they milk about 10-12 cows, keep 15-16 pigs a year, roughly 1000 broilers and 30-40 ducks.
Farming for Nature ambassadors, the pair practice an holistic approach of mixed stock and they believe in diversity in income streams, markets and retailers.
The husband and wife duo focus largely on their micro-dairy, with pedigree Irish Shorthorn cows dominating the pastures producing raw cream, raw butter and raw buttermilk, with all processes completed on-farm.
Aside from the dairy aspect, they also engage in beef production with the weanlings with 100% grass-raised beef.
They raise organic broiler chickens that follow behind the cows in the grazing rotation, have organic ducks for slug control, organic pigs to assist them to consume excess skim milk.
Their traditional working farm is an ecosystem as well that is mutually beneficial: “We believe Ireland has the opportunity to produce good clean food and we want to be part of that and help others realise that opportunity as well”.
The Crawford's philosophy is to run an economically viable, holistic farm that can provide the best organic, unprocessed foods, integrating environmental stewardship with humane animal husbandry to produce healthy soil and pastures.
The heart of the farm focuses on the micro-dairy, with pedigree Irish Shorthorn cows dominating the pastures, mainly because they are traditional, hardy and docile, as explained by the Crawfords.
In 2015, they started milking four pedigree Irish Shorthorn cows and in the space of two years, this figure doubled to eight.