There was an aim to include within the sustainability assessments a number of examples of farms using innovative practices. As stated in the introduction, this was not restricted to new inventions, but also included farms where an activity or approach was unusual for the particular region at this time, perhaps even being a return to more traditional practices. Incorporating these within modern systems is classed here as “innovation”. Contact with the SME’s was generally the way of identifying these more unusual approaches. A few other examples were identified through contact with further farmers attending the workshops. Very few practices were found which were completely new. In some cases, farmers were returning to traditional practices which have become unfashionable, so their use in today’s systems is considered along with the innovations in this case. The examples are summarised in this section under subject headings.
4.4.1 Feeding
Some goat farms in the Netherlands were using unusual industry by-products as feed, e.g. from a muesli factory. Feeding with large amounts of hay instead of silage, for the purpose of producing milk for specific processing requirements, was considered unusual in Denmark, although quite a common, traditional practice in Austria and Italy. In Denmark this requires large inputs of electricity or diesel to dry the hay. Some Austrian mountain farms used “grass cobs” made from their own grass to reduce purchased concentrate use. The cultivation of Vicia ervilia and Vicia faba for use as feedstuffs for goats was considered innovative in Greece, although these crops are commonly grown in other countries. Some Romanian farmers attending the workshop were trying some “forgotten” feeds such as feed-grade turnips, millet and sorghum; other farmers were carrying out their own variety trials for maize, wheat and alfalfa and this was considered innovative in the group. The use of herbs in the diet for goats, to enhance animal health and product quality, was reported in Belgium. 4.4.2 Improving soil
One UK farm has established very diverse and herb-rich swards and grazes them using an extended rotation interval, along the lines of “mob grazing” principles (Chapman, 2012), with the intention of increasing soil organic matter (Richmond, 2011). This farmer was keen for further research input to help with monitoring of the approach in UK conditions.
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4.4.3 Animal management
Unusual or interesting practices in Denmark included seasonal calving and keeping calves with suckler “aunts”. One UK farmer aims to maximise animal welfare (having built new housing for the cows) while minimising environmental footprint and taking a “lean farming” approach, aiming to reduce inputs and maximise efficiency.
Some goat farms in the Netherlands (studied from Belgium) took an innovative approach of extended lactations which resulted in more milk, better goat health and lower mortality, reduced labour requirements and reduced the production of unprofitable male kids. Extended lactations are also practised for dairy cows in Belgium. Due to its large size farm in Flanders with over 1000 goats was also considered innovative.
Once a day milking is a relatively new approach in the UK used by a minority group of farmers wishing to reduce costs and inputs.
4.4.4 Marketing
There were several novel approaches to marketing. Austrian mountain farms achieved direct marketing of farm produce and good connections to the public through agro-tourism. There were good examples of specialised marketing of kid meat from the Netherlands.
In Greece, there was a fully vertically integrated Greek goat farm, producing pasteurized milk and different types of goat cheese. Another goat farm had its own butcher shop selling both goat meat and homemade dairy products directly to the public.
Two Romanian farms sell part of the milk they produce in local markets through authorized dispensing machines.
In Spain, the marketing strategy of one cheese-making farm toward targeting high-end restaurants to sell goat cheese under different types of maturation (olive oil, herbs, etc..) showed that this ‘a la carte’ strategy could be very successful.
In Italy one low input farm was selected for the rapid sustainability assessment for its approach using a new marketing channel (www. lattenobile.it). The feeding was 70% forage, including at least 4 botanical types of broadleaved species, aiming to produce milk with a particular Omega 3 fatty acid composition, and levels of Vitamin E, beta-carotene and conjugated-linoleic acids, as mentioned above. This topic has been studied in projects (eg Larson et al, 2011, Petersen et al, 2012, Povollo et al, 2013, Revello-Chion et al, 2011) ,but few farmers have taken it into practice as yet.
4.4.5 Farm self-sufficiency in energy
Austrian mountain farms demonstrated self-sufficient practices using biomass from their own forest to fuel a hay drying installation.
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In Finland, some farmers cultivate oil seed rape and it is pressed on their farms or transferred to small factories to be pressed for oil and protein feed. In some tractors, part of the fuel can be replaced by vegetable oil. One Finnish farmer aimed to produce an equivalent amount of rapeseed oil on his farm to the amount of fuel used in tractors for field work. This farmer calculated that he produces the same amount of rape seed oil as he uses fuel in his tractors. Although he does not actually use his own oil in his tractors, thinking this way demonstrated a novel approach to considering energy use.