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

By Ulla Skovsbøl

Hundreds of black goats swarm around the visitors as the agricultural scientists of the SOLID project approach the Pérez Family Farm in the Andalusian countryside outside Granada on for a farm visit.

José Luis Perez Peula and his brother Antonio Perez Peula  run the farm with two milkers and a an elderly goat herd, while his daughter Belén is in charge of the farm dairy producing a delicious goat cheese using 20 percent of the milk produced on farm  by his daughter Belen Peréz Peula  – the rest is delivered to the local dairy.

The Pereéz Family farm has been involved in the project as a case farm and the owners have tested new low-input feeding strategies based on by-products in cooperation with scientists from the Animal Nutrition Institute at the research institution CSIC in Granada.

Started as a teenager

The two brothers grew up on the farm, and José Luis Pérez Peula is happy to be able to continue working the family farm.

“When I was fourteen years old I started working with my father.  We were sitting in the shade of the olive trees and milking the goats by hand. I had to milk 200 goats once a day by hand,” he remembers.

It was hard work, but he liked it and he has never regretted following in his father´s foot steps. Yet, the farm has changed a lot since he was a teenager.

The family now cultivates 400 hectares of land with  grain, cauliflower, a mixture of oats and barley meant for hay and and also with more extensive pastures for 1200 Murciano Granacina goats.

Benefit from feeding by-products

The farm has benefitted from being involved in the SOLID project. The Pérez were already using by-products before being involved in cooperation with the animal nutritionists from Granada, but the experts have helped improve their feeding strategy. They now use waste from the cauliflower fields in a more efficient way than before.

“Cauliflower is rich in protein – 25 per cent in the fruit and 12 per cent in the leaves,”  David R. Yañez-Ruiz,  animal nutritionist  at CSIC and involved in the SOLID project.

“Based on estimation of daily intake of the by-product the farmer was advised to reduce concentrate supply to animals by 25 per cent during the period that animals had access to the by-product. This represented a significant reduction in feeding costs without compromising milk production at all,” he says.

Facts about the farm

• Area: 400 ha
• Crops: Grain, cauliflower, oats and barley for hay, grass, extensive pastures
• Goats: 1200 Murciano Granacina
• Lactation: Eight month (250 days).
• Milking frequency: Twice a day
• Yield: 2.5 kg per goat per day on average
• Milk composition: 5 % fat, 3 % protein
• Cheese: 20 % of the milk used for on farm cheese production

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SOLID visit to the Peréz Family Farm – May 2015