EuroDairy spread the word @ EGF Congress 2017 Sardinia

On 8 May EuroDairy was presented at a symposium of the European Grassland Federation (EGF) in Sardinia, Italy. Sardinia is the biggest island in the Western Mediterranean basin. The climate is characterised by dry, hot summers and mild winters. Sardinia is the main producer of sheep milk (3.315 kt), sheep meat (suckling lamb) and goat milk in Italy. Cow milk production (217 kt) is on Sardinia of minor importance. All sheep milk is processed into cheese, mostly Pecorino Romano PDO.

Agri-tourism, product diversification and offering ecosystem services are important activities in future development of farms. The variation in grazing types is enormous, varying from silvo-pastoral systems, where livestock graze during all year wild food resources, like grasses, shrubs and trees; agro-pastoral systems, mainly sheep grazing on natural and improved pasture; cereal-farming systems, where sheep consume mainly cultivated winter cereals and their by-product (stubble, straw) in combination to permanent pasture; fodder crop systems where dairy cows and dairy ewes are fed with hay and silage from crops like Italian ryegrass, alfa-alfa or white clover rather than pasture. These last systems are widespread in irrigated plains.

Introduction of different legumes and their integration in the forage system gets much attention in research to increase production and also to offer high quality feed in lambing season and to overcome shortage of feed during the dry summer period.

Attached a paper about EuroDairy from the proceedings of the Symposium (Keatinge EGF 2017 EuroDairy Korevaar EGF 2017 poster low resolution) and the presented poster (Korevaar EGF 2017 poster low resolution)!