The SOLID final conference has been postponed until 22 March 2016.

Instead a workshop will be hold on 19 January from 10.00 – 12.30h in Brussels:Welsh Higher Education Brussels, Wales House, 11 Rond-Point Schuman, Brussels

“Future research priorities and implementation strategies in the Organic and Low input Dairy Sector”.  

Following brief presentations on the main outputs from the SOLID project. The workshops will split into 2 breakout groups:

• Future Research Priorities
• Future implementation of project outputs

Followed by a report back and final discussion.
If you are interested in attending the workshop on the morning of the 19th, please send an email to eu-projects@icar.org with the subject “SOLID Workshop” with your confirmation of attendance.

The majority of participants epresented various Finnish stakeholder groups with delegates from other Nordic countries and the Baltic countries as well.

The presentations covered findings from all work packages of the project. Additional presentations were also given, where the role of organic dairy production in the Northern Europe was evaluated. We also received an update of another EU FP7 project “Ruminomics”.

In the end of the workshop, a panel discussion took place where the key questions of what are the major opportunities and challenges of organic and low-input dairying were addressed. The implementation of the research results was also discussed throughout the workshop. The e-learning courses produced as important outputs of the project were seen as one means to improve the impact of the project.

Presentations given at the workshop are available from the links below:

Day 1:

Sustainable Organic and Low Input Dairying (SOLID) – an introduction

Organic food production & consumption in the Nordic countries: possibilities and challenges, Pirjo Siiskonen, FORI Director, professor

Carbon footprint of organic dairying in six European countries, Sanna Hietala

Decision support tools for environmental improvements in dairy farms, Sampsa Nisonen

INCLUDING OF BIODIVERSITY AND SOIL CARBON CHANGES IN LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENTS OF MILK PRODUCTION, Marie Trydeman Knudsen & John E. Hermansen

Participatory on-farm trials were successfully used in SOLID-project, Päivi Kurki

From conventional intensive farming to performance economy? Sirpa Kurppa

Economic perspectives in promoting lowinput dairying in Finland, Heikki Lehtonen and Olli Niskanen

From current challenges to future innovations, Dr. Terhi Latvala

Day 2:

Novel feeds may provide multiple benefits, Prof. Marketta Rinne

Effects of feeding intensity on milk production and animal health in different breed types
“Organic and low-input dairying – an option to Northern European Dairy Sector?”, Auvo Sairanen, Marketta Rinne, Werner Zollitsch, Conrad Ferris, Mogens Verstergaard and Torben Larsen

Feed efficiency and Genetics, Martin Lidauer

RuminOmics Connecting the animal genome, the intestinal microbiome and nutrition to enhance the efficiency of ruminant digestion and to mitigate the environmental impacts of
ruminant livestock production, John Wallace

TRAINING COURSES ELEARNING, CLEDWYN THOMAS AND JULIAN COOK

See programme from the SOLID regional Meeting in Helsinki, 2015

On January 26-27, 2016 a SOLID conference was held in Bristol on the future sustainability of organic and low-input milk production. Challenges and solutions were on the agenda.

The conference in Bristol , aimed at farmers, consultants, scientists, dairy processors and feed producers, will present and debate the outcomes of the Sustainable Organic and Low- Input Dairying (SOLID) project. We will focus on practical strategies to implement the findings of the project by farmers.

Speakers from Aberystwyth University, OMSCO, Aarhus University and the Agricultural University in Vienna will introduce the challenges of low-input and organic milk production as well as reporting on project results in relation to breeding objectives, breed choice, forage utilisation and animal health. Farmers who were actively involved in the project will present their experiences. More about the conference

“DAIRY LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION IN EASTERN EUROPE” October 15-16, 2015 – Balotesti, Romania

Preliminary workshop programme

Further information in English  and Romanian

The Organic Research Centre (ORC) together with OMSCO, Aberystwyth University and AHDB Dairy are organizing a West European Regional Workshop under the SOLID project. The workshop will be held on the 26-27 of January 2016 in Bristol, UK. Read more