The conference was held at Welsh Higher Education, Brussels Tuesday 22nd March 2016.

Go to the presentations.

SOLID has funds (up to €500 pr. pers.) to support attendance of a limited number of early career scientists from European regions at the final conference in Brussels.

Deadline: The 8th March 2015, 18.00h (GMT)
Apply for the financial support here

Applicants must be: 

• From Europe
• Actively involved in research, extension, industry, or policy in subjects related to the aims of SOLID
• Within 10 years of degree or post graduate qualifications
  

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We will carefully select the candidates using the above criteria and to ensure a good regional and gender representation. If you are chosen to receive support, we will inform you by 10th March 2016 and you will need to reply, accepting the conditions by 12th March. Please ensure that you can access your email during this period. Our decisions on successful applicants will be final.

You will be responsible for organising your travel, accommodation and for any additional costs beyond your scholarship amount. You must keep all the receipts and attend the conference. You will only be reimbursed for expenses with original receipts shortly after the event by transfer into your bank account.

Apply for financial support here

Deadline for all financial support applications is 8th March 2015, 18.00h (GMT).

Date: Tuesday 22nd March 2016, 09.00 – 16.30

Venue: Welsh Higher Education Brussels, Wales House, 11 Rond-Point Schuman, Brussels.

This Conference will present the outputs from SOLID which has developed a range of novel methodologies to contribute to the competitiveness of organic and low input dairying systems whilst, at the same time, increasing the effectiveness of delivery of the multi- functional benefits that these systems offer.

Topics being presented include:

• Organic and low input dairy systems? The challenges.
• Organic and low input dairy breeds – fact or fiction?
• There is a feed for every need.
• The environmental footprint of organic and low-input dairying.
• Driving competitiveness in dairying.
• Policy recommendations as a results of SOLID.
• Future directions for organic and low input dairying in Europe.

The conference will end with a round table discussion on future challenges in organic and low input dairying.

A detailed programme with speakers can be found here

Attendance at the conference is free. You can register here.

The deadline for registration is 16^th March 2016.

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