Ty Gwyn:

The Tŷ Gwyn organic dairy farm was converted from a system based on an annual fertilizer input of 380kg N/ha and a stocking rate of 2 cows/ha.  The 2 year conversion period started in 1992 with the first organic milk sold from the farm in August 1994.

The original 63ha of land has now been increased to 94.5ha all classified as Grade 3.  The soils are average quality silt loams with drainage varying from poor to good.  The farm is between 50 and 80 metres above sea level with annual rainfall running at 1200 mm (47.2 inches).

20% of the land is maintained as permanent pasture with the other 80% included in a legume-based crop rotation based on cereals, Italian ryegrass/red clover and perennial rygrass/white clover leys.  New hedges have been established since the start of conversion to increase the number of wildlife habitats.  With the exception of lime, no purchased organic fertilizers have been applied to the farm since 1991.

The farm was closely monitored both during the conversion period and the immediate post conversion years – this process yielded much valuable information.  Once the whole farm system came into a reasonable balance IGER started to investigate different approaches to organic dairy farming and this process is continuing.

Enterprises:	Dairy
Land:	94.5 ha (234 acres)
Rotation:	Spring barley for arable silage (undersown with IRG/red clover) 2 years Italian ryegrass/red clover whole-crop cereals – arable silage.