
Ireland's first fully certified organic mineral bucket lick range launched
Formulated by their expert in-house team of nutritionists, the Organolics range is 100% organic and has been specifically developed to meet the nutritional demands of cattle and sheep within organic farming systems.
Certified by the Irish Organic Association and fully compliant with EU Regulation No. 2018/848, the Organolics range delivers the same trusted performance and quality assurance as their conventional products, using only ingredients approved for organic production.
This is advanced nutrition for organic farms committed to achieving top animal performance.
The Organolics range include: Organolics Energy, a high-performance feed bucket lick; and Organolics 365, a complete year-round magnesium mineral lick.
Both products are formulated to support animal health and performance, boost energy, and to promote fertility, thrive, and lactation.
Inform's Head of Ruminant Nutrition, Liam Lacey, recently visited Padraig Healy, an organic sheep farmer based in Aughrim, Co. Wicklow.
Padraig runs a 140-ewe, March-lambing flock alongside his wife and two daughters.
Having transitioned to organic farming over 18 months ago, Padraig said: 'The rules and regulations of organic farming are something that people are fearful of, and we were fearful of it ourselves.
"That's why finding a product certified by the Irish Organic Association, which we are members of, was so important to us.'
Padraig uses both Organolics Energy and Organolics 365 from December through to April, when the sheep are in lamb and when the sheep have lambs at foot.
'It maximises the winter forage for the sheep and they get better benefits of that winter grass," he said.
Both products 'really ticked all the boxes for us' when it came to finding a certified solution that aligned with organic requirements and delivered measurable results.
'We found that ewes came into lamb in good condition after using the buckets and there was plenty of strong, healthy, vibrant lambs after,' Padraig said.
Organolics Energy supports all classes of cattle, sheep and dairy animals, delivering fermentable energy and high-quality protein to improve feed intake and boost forage digestibility, particularly vital during the winter months or when forage quality is suboptimal.
While using Organolics Energy, Padraig found that they had noticeably fewer health problems this year on farm.
The inclusion of key trace elements such as zinc also made a significant difference in foot health.
According to Padraig: 'There was less lameness, which led to overall, healthy vibrant lambs and a good crop of them.'
Organolics 365 is suitable for all year-round supply of magnesium to sheep and cattle, and ideally supplemented eight weeks pre-lambing or calving or during risks of grass tetany.
Padraig considers Organolics 365 a very important part of his organic farming system.
'These buckets are very palatable, the sheep take to them well, and they're getting the amount of magnesium that they need without overdoing it.'
Liam Lacey added that the launch of Inform's Organolics Range shows Inform's commitment to support organic farming both in Ireland and abroad in export markets.
Lacey said: 'There's a clear and growing demand for certified organic nutritional solutions.
"The reality is, forage, whether hay, straw or silage, often falls short in trace element supply.
"Organolics bridges that nutritional gap with certified, high-quality formulations that support animal health, performance and welfare in organic systems.'
This launch underpins Inform Nutrition's continued innovation in specialist animal nutrition delivering science-led, performance-focused formulations to meet the evolving demands of sustainable agriculture.
For more information on Inform Nutrition's Organolics Range or to find your local stockist contact our local nutritional adviser:
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Irish Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
'My life is on hold. It has been a kick in the balls' - Colin Hawkins opens up
His day began in a waiting room, a real-life purgatory. The clock ticked past nine when he took his seat. He recalls the noise of the water cooler; the rise and fall in volume as people passed along the corridor. Otherwise there was silence, which is not an uncommon thing on the seventh floor of the Mater Hospital, where cancer patients get their treatment. Read more: AZ Almaar manager's snappy response to question about Troy Parrott's future Read more: Shock report suggests Manchester United and Liverpool are eyeing up Ireland star And on this sunny Friday morning, this was where Colin Hawkins, one of only 20 Irish footballers to win a medal at an official World Cup event, went to discover if the cancer drug they'd given him would save his life. The clock ticked on. It was just after ten when he left his chair to take in the view from the seventh floor window; Croke Park to the right, Dalymount Park to the left. It was Dayler where Hawkins played when he was 25-years-old and considered the best defender in the League of Ireland. 'You felt invincible,' he says of his days as a professional footballer. But no one ever is. Still, at that stage of his life, the midpoint of a professional career, it is no exaggeration to say he was among the country's healthy elite. Now, as a 47-year-old man, his feelings of invincibility are over. So he sat back down for his appointment and waited, every second feeling like a minute, every minute an hour. Time passed. Time didn't heal. He thought about his upbringing. He was one of ten children, the only one of his siblings to become a professional athlete, a four-times winner of the League of Ireland, later a player with Coventry City in England's Championship, Europe's fifth best attended league. 'I probably took my health for granted,' he says. 'Put it this way, it was a big shock to my nine siblings that I was the one who got so ill. 'It can't be you, you are the sports guy', they said.' But it was him because cancer is a democratic illness. Anyone can be diagnosed with it. A King of England died from it. It doesn't discriminate against rich or poor. 'It is two-and-a-half years since I was first diagnosed,' Hawkins says. 'And the thing you learn about this life is that you don't know when your time is (up). 'I don't feel punished or whatever. It is just unlucky. Still, if you ever want a wake-up call about why you should enjoy every day of your life, go into the Mater every Friday. 'Walk to the seventh floor. Go into the waiting room where you receive your treatment. You are handed a number. A person sits to your left, another to your right. 'I keep asking, 'how is this place so busy? Are more and more people getting cancer than ever before?' Their answer is actually reaffirming. 'No,' they tell me, 'more and more people are surviving.' Colin Hawkins is drawing the positives from life. (Image: ©INPHO/Donall Farmer) By now it was 11am. He still had the ticket in his hand. It resembled a small raffle ticket, a beige colour. He waited and thought back to 2023 when he started to feel unwell. By the time he discovered he had cancer in his blood, the pain became practically unbearable. He subsequently needed surgery on his neck and his back. 'When the myeloma is alive and active, that is when your bones break,' he says matter of factly. 'When it is gone and under control, all that pain is gone.' Good news came. He received stem cell treatment and entered remission. Then terrible news followed. His wife, Elaine, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Telling their three children this news was the hardest day of their lives. Better days came after that. Elaine's treatment worked. She, thankfully, is in remission. Life returned to normal for a while until his old pains resurfaced. He visited Dr O'Gorman in the Mater to review a new drug he had been on for six weeks. 'Your numbers have gone through the roof and your myeloma has gone crazy again,' he was told. 'We need to take you off this drug and get you on a new one.' That was three months ago. He had to check into the hospital that night and ended up staying for a month to see if he could deal with the side-effects of the drug. He got pancreatitis. There is pain and then there is pain. Pancreatitis was hell. But this feeling he had on that Friday morning was way worse, sitting on a blue chair, holding a beige-coloured ticket, staring at the clock, waiting and wondering. If the news was good, if he was told the drug was working, then life would go on. He'd return to work 'to CPM, the best employers in the world who have looked after me while I have been ill'. But if this drug wasn't working, what then? Was there a fifth drug they could try? He hadn't asked. 'Sitting in that room, waiting for that news was the first time I was seriously worried. Three treatments had failed. 'I had my bloods taken the day before. I had scans. As the clock ticked towards noon. I was waiting to be told if my numbers had improved or got worse. 'I have always fought it (his cancer) head on. This was the first time when I realised this was a trial drug; so if this doesn't work then what the hell is the next treatment?' The stem cell transplant he had received was supposed to give him ten years in remission. 'For the cancer to come back after 18 months was kind of unheard of for my age. I was obviously nervous waiting for the result.' Nervous waiting for a result! He remembers the first time he issued those words, back in 1998. He was a St Pat's player then. They won that year's League of Ireland title on the last day of the season, beating Kilkenny City away. But to become champions, they needed Dundalk to defeat their rivals, Shelbourne. So they waited for a result from Oriel Park. They got the news they wanted. The following year something similar happened, Pat's beating Bray on the final day of the season to win back-to-back titles. Consumed by the game, he worked to make the most of what he had, reaching an incredibly high level, representing his country at underage level, winning bronze at the 1997 Under 20 World Cup. And when he spent a month in the Mater Hospital over Easter, all those players from all those teams came in to visit. Brian Kerr, his Ireland manager in 1997, checks in at least once a week. Brian Kerr, the former St Pat's and Ireland manager, is still a regular at Saints games (Image: ©INPHO/Tom Maher) 'Brian has been incredible,' Hawkins says. 'He has such a big heart. Football people, they're great. They don't forget. They remember the big nights, you being there for them on the pitch. "This time they were there for me. All these years later and the dressing room spirit is still strong. It's why football is special.' Yet now all those characteristics which made him such a winner were being put to the test. He says: 'My life is on hold. Thursday I get the bloods done, Friday my treatment. It has been a kick in the balls. That is where my life is at the moment. 'I am not working because I don't have the energy. My immune system is really low. I kind of feel I have a permanent flu or a chest infection.' Yet he isn't feeling sorry for himself because he has spoken to people in the chair next to him in that waiting room, swiftly realising if they have no hope. And on this Friday morning three and a half hours elapsed before Dr O'Gorman called. And that was when the man who played in a World Cup U20 semi-final for Ireland, got up off the blue chair and walked into a doctor's office. In those steps, the fact he had been a champion footballer on four different occasions ceased to matter. He was just another number, waiting to hear if his cancer drug was helping. 'It is,' said Professor O'Gorman. 'You are responding well.' That was eight weeks ago. Today Colin Hawkins is in remission. This champion football player has just won the biggest prize of his life. Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email .


Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Cow lameness costs farmers €8,750 a year, Teagasc study finds
Cow lameness costs the average Irish dairy farm about €8,750 per year. The latest Teagasc research showed that one in 10 Irish dairy cows is lame at any one time. How to reduce lameness was the subject when Muireann Conneely, a vet with a PhD in dairy calf health, took part in a recent Dairy Edge podcast episode. 'The worst-performing farms in our study had lameness prevalences of between 15% and 32%. So, there are a lot of farms in the country that have high lameness,' Ms Conneely said. But many farms are successfully minimising lameness. 'The best-performing 20% of farmers in our study had lameness below 5%. Below 5% is a target we should all be aiming for,' Ms Conneely said. 'Lame cows produce less milk. This can happen up to three months before they're diagnosed with lameness. "Research at Moorepark showed that a severely lame cow would have a 6% drop in her total 305-day milk yield. Other studies have put the total loss in milk production over the course of the lactation at somewhere between 270kg and 570kg, depending on the type of lameness. So, it's a huge cost,' she said. 'Lameness has huge implications for reproductive performance, milk yield and longevity.' It was found at Moorepark that the calving interval increases with the severity of lameness, which can reduce the conception rate by 20% 'Lame cows are in pain. There's higher cortisol in the system. That all impacts the reproductive cycle. Also, lame cows don't want to stand to be mounted, and heat detection is more difficult,' she added. Painful inflammation Lameness is usually due to non-infectious lesions. The most frequent causes include white line disease, caused by grit or small stones entering the white line and leading to painful inflammation. It could also be sole bruising, often due to hard or rough surfaces, or sole ulcers caused by internal pressure within the hoof capsule, usually on the outer claw of the hind feet. Infectious foot conditions are the other cause of lameness. Foul in the foot (interdigital necrobacillosis) is caused by bacteria entering through broken skin between the claws, leading to swelling and severe pain. Digital dermatitis (Mortellaro's disease) is a contagious disease of the skin near the hoof. The measures taken to tackle lameness on a farm will depend on the causes. Uneven, sharp, or potholed roadways, yards, and gateways can injure feet. 'There should be a nice, fine top-dressing on the roads that doesn't have stones that are going to cause bruising and damage,' Ms Conneely said. "In our study, 50% of farms had at least one cow track that was rough or very rough.' She said that a relatively minor investment in farm roadways will probably generate the biggest payoff in terms of reducing lameness. Cows should also be moved calmly, without sticks, dogs, or quads, to avoid shearing forces on the hoof. If they're being rushed, and if they're being moved too quickly, they can't take the time to put their feet in a safe spot without any stones "We don't have to spend any money to move cows more slowly and more gently, and that can have a huge impact." Long periods on concrete can increase the risk of sole ulcers. Inadequate turning space at the parlour exit and insufficient space in the collecting yard can also lead to problems. 'If you're talking about infectious lesions such as Mortellaro's, you need to look at the hygiene in your housing, in and around the milking parlour, because it's spread through the slurry. You need to look at your foot-bathing regimes,' she added. 'If there is a Mortellaro problem, foot bathing is very important. If it's a Mortellaro problem that's under control, you may be okay doing a foot-bathing regime weekly. "But if it's a crisis where things are really getting out of hand, you may need to increase that frequency to twice a day for a couple of weeks,' she said. Whatever product is used, it's important to prepare it at the correct concentration. The solution should be changed after every 200 cow passes. Poor recovery rate Chronically lame cows have a poor recovery rate. 'Cows that were treated sooner had recovery rates of 70–80%,' said Ms Conneely. She said some farmers do a lot of their own hoof trimming and may have done the training courses available for farmers to get up to speed with hoof trimming and treating lame cows. 'For larger herds, it may be a very good idea to have a standing arrangement with a hoof trimmer to come regularly,' she suggested. 'Not every cow will need a trim. But there can be uneven wear, and there might need to be a bit of corrective trimming to change the weight-bearing surfaces, which can prevent lameness issues developing,' she explained. 'The best practice advice would be to get the whole herd inspected at least once a year,' she said. If that's not feasible, a more targeted approach could be taken. 'Instead of lifting the hoofs of absolutely every cow, which would be best practice, you could look at the older cows, the cows that have had a history of being lame, cows that tend to be towards the back of the herd,' Ms Conneely said. 'Not many farmers in our study had a lameness plan. That's probably an area where people can improve a lot.' 'Mobility scoring is looking at your cows individually and assigning them a score. Basically, you're trying to pick up the cows that are lame,' she added. The earlier lameness is identified, the greater the chances of a good recovery and the lower the productivity losses. 'Our study showed that only 1% of farmers here were mobility scoring regularly,' she said. Teagasc is currently preparing a video showing farmers how they can mobility score their herd.

The Journal
9 hours ago
- The Journal
Tony Holohan 'will not seek' Áras nomination to avoid 'exposing family to criticism or abuse'
TONY HOLOHAN HAS said he will not seek nominations to run for the presidency. The former chief medical officer said that, after being approached by a number of people asking him to put his name forward, he will not be throwing his hat in the ring. In a statement, Holohan said that while he is able for the 'tough nature' of modern politics, his family isn't. Advertisement 'While a number of different factors have influenced my decision, my overriding consideration has been my wish to protect my family from the kind of personal abuse which is becoming increasingly normalised in Irish politics generally and in presidential elections in particular,' he said. 'I understand the very tough nature of modern politics and while I am more than capable of defending my reputation and the decisions which I have taken, over a long career during challenging times in public service my family is not. 'I cannot now expose them to further distress, criticism or abuse at a time when we are all still rebuilding our lives.' He said he hoped that the upcoming campaigns will involve 'civilised and respectful debate and reflection'. 'We have been well served by the holders of this high office to date, and I wish the next President – whoever he or she may be – every success in the role. They will have my full support,' he concluded. Related Reads Heather Humphreys confirms she is 'seriously considering' seeking Fine Gael nomination for president Presidential campaigning ramping up as potential candidates take stock after McGuinness withdrawal Millionaire Áras hopeful launches presidential campaign in the Shelbourne - here's what he said Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD Heather Humphreys has confirmed that she is considering running to be the party's nominee in the presidential election. The decision comes in the wake of Mairéad McGuinness, Fine Gael's first choice for the nominee, withdrawing from the race for health reasons after spending time in hospital. The party's executive team will meet tonight to map out its next moves. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal