Good Practice - Project
Exploitation of organic cereal and sheep breeding
Investment to reduce risk and improve the profitability of the circular economy approach on a farm in Valencia.
General information
RDP Priority
- P2. Competitiveness
RDP Focus Area
- 2A: Farm’s performance, restructuring & modernisation
RDP Measure
- M04: Investments in physical assets
Beneficiary type
- Farmer / land manager
Summary
The project promoter, María Elvira Chorques Pareja, runs an extensive livestock farm in the municipality of Enguera (Valencia) in Spain. María Elvira breeds sheep and goats, and combines this with the cultivation of 150 hectares of organic cereal, which is entirely used to feed the livestock on the farm. The farm operates in line with a circular economy approach.
Given the need to harvest cereal at the most optimal time to avoid losses in quantity and quality of the crop, María Elvira decided to purchase a combine harvester. The aim was to improve her independence from mostly unavailable local harvesting services, and thereby reduce a number of risks experienced on the farm. The investment improved the performance and quality of cereal production on the farm, enhanced working conditions, and increased the farm’s profitability. Overall, the investment contributed to adding value to the circular economy approach used on the farm.
Results
- Following the purchase, the farm became fully independent of external harvesting services. This reduced costs.
- Increasing the quality of the cereal harvested made it easier to provide more suitable feed to the animals, which, in turn, improved the quality of the final meat product obtained.
- In addition, the health of the animals improved due to the reduced occurrence of grain falling to the ground in the field and being picked up by them.
Promoter
Livestock Chorques Pareja SL
Funding
RDP contribution: 130 000 (EUR)
EAFRD: 68 900 (EUR)
National/Regional: 61 100 (EUR)
Resources
Documents
Good Practice Report - Exploitation of organic cereal and sheep breeding
(PDF – 1.01 MB)
Links
Context
María Elvira is a livestock farmer and veterinarian. She owns an extensive farm in Enguera (Valencia) in Spain, where she breeds sheep (mainly Guirra) and goats. She also cultivates organic cereal crops on 150 hectares of land.
In partnership with her brother, María Elvira started to work on a circular economy approach. In 2019, this gained her an ‘Environmental Integration Award’ for entrepreneurship and innovation in the agricultural sector from a regional newspaper. The approach is based on using all cereal produced on-farm for animal feed, while straw is baled and used in rumination, and stubble in the fields is left for grazing. Finally, the manure produced on-farm fertilises the fields, which completes the circularity of the approach. This system requires two harvests per year: one to produce fodder, and one to collect dry grain.
However, the availability of local harvester services at the optimal moment of cereal maturation was poor. If the grain dries too quickly and falls to the ground, crop losses occur. There was also a risk of cross-contaminating the organic harvest with leftovers from conventionally produced grains, if the contracted machine had previously been used on conventional plots. This could cause difficulties in certifying the organic product.
All these difficulties motivated María Elvira to acquire her own combine harvester, aiming to be independent, harvest at the best moment, and ensure that her organic produce maintained the required organic standards. However, combine harvesters represent a substantial investment, and financial support was needed.
Objectives
The main project objective was to enable the farmer to harvest on time and gain independence from local harvesting services. This aimed to reduce the loss in crops and enhance the quality of the grain, thus improving the yield and increasing the economic profitability of the business.
An additional risk arises when not-harvested grain falls to the ground and is picked up in excess by grazing animals, potentially causing undesirable rumen health problems.
In addition, it was important for the farm to maintain its compliance with the organic criteria and standards of the Committee of Ecological Agriculture of the Valencian Community (CAECV), and eliminate the risk of cross-contamination of her organic produce from other, conventionally farmed, estates.
The overall ambition of the project was to maintain an economically viable circular economy approach by growing and harvesting cereal and fodder to feed the livestock on-farm and ensure the production of quality feed for animals.
Activities
The main activities of the project involved sourcing and purchasing a combine harvester.
Main results
The main result of the project was that one combine harvester was purchased and is now fully operational. The indirect quantitative and qualitative benefits arising from this purchase included the following:
- Following the purchase, the farm became fully independent of external harvesting services. This reduced costs. The capacity of the new machine achieved the harvesting of one hectare of cereal per hour, which equated to 3 000 kg of barley and 2 000 kg of oats per hour.
- The increased independence also impacted positively on the farm’s time management, which improved working conditions as well as the quality of the grain (i.e. being able to harvest at the optimum time of grain development).
- Increasing the quality of the cereal harvested made it easier to provide more suitable feed to the animals, which, in turn, improved the quality of the final meat product obtained.
- In addition, the health of the animals improved due to the reduced occurrence of grain falling to the ground in the field and being picked up by them.
- Overall, the farmer and her brother have experienced an improvement in quality of life due to an improved income and working conditions.
Key lessons
- When purchasing the combine harvester, the beneficiary had to search hard for a dealer who actually had the machine in stock. This was necessary, as the time needed for manufacturing a new machine exceeded the funding period. As such, the proposed deadlines for implementing the activity were unrealistic.
- Further challenges were encountered when an inspection was conducted to verify the purchase and the crops on the land. At that time, the crops did not correspond to those crops that were declared when the funding application was written. Therefore, applicants, as well as managing and inspection agencies, need to be mindful that funding procedures do not always correspond to the actual processes of the agricultural activity. More flexibility in the procedures would be helpful to prevent such setbacks.
…now, when it is time we harvest it, we see when the optimal time is to harvest a field, and we go to that field. We look at the optimal moment of maturity of each field and harvest. With that, the losses have decreased greatly. We have also reduced the costs of hiring a combine harvester, which made everything very expensive.