Inspirational ideas: Herbivorous Project

A group of farmers, a university and an advisory centre in Latvia have set up a project called Herbivorous Project. Through the exchange of knowledge in the livestock sector between farmers and scientists, the project aims to promote a cost-effective and competitive method of livestock farming whilst improving quality and volume of output, and at the same time taking animal welfare, environmental protection and sustainability into consideration.

Background

During the economic crisis (2009 -2010) the Latvian Agricultural Advisory and Training Centre (LRATC) worked with farms who were facing difficulties. The project found that in the dairy sector, low productivity and ineffective use of resources on farm level were the main problems. So LRATC decided to look for effective tools and methods to improve the work in the dairy sector, this led to the Herbivorous Project.

Finding a common language

An important element of this project is bringing scientists and farmers together in the livestock sector. Pooling skills and experiences has proven effective for finding solutions to problems, but in reality, it is not always easy to find ways for them to work together.

An answer to this, according to the Herbivorous project is finding a common “language” and common goals and objectives, and also in finding the right time to work together. Herbivorous creates these opportunities by organising demonstration farm activities.

The topics of the demonstration farms are decided by an advisory board set up by the project - Livestock Competence Centre Advisory board, which consists of 12 people, representing advisers, scientists, and different farmers’ organisations. This multidisciplinary board decides on the themes which are in most need of practical demonstrations and trials in livestock farming, taking account the points of view from science and the field.

Productivity, cost effectiveness, welfare

The Herbivorous Project aims to:

• Promote best practice, knowledge transfer and livestock demonstration farms, ensuring the exchange of experience in the livestock sector between farmers, consultants and scientists.
• Promote the competitiveness of livestock farming through cost-effective methods of farming, with a view to improving the quality and volume of production, Take into account animal welfare, environmental protection and the conservation of resources.
• Develop rational recommendations for livestock farms, using commercially reasonable good practice farming methods on a trial basis.

The Herbivorous Project involves farms throughout Latvia, covering different breeders (cattle, dairy, sheep, goat). It also covers many different topic areas: “One of the topics was how to use digital tools in sheep breeding. Demonstration farms showed a management system for grouping, feeding and accounting for sheep” says Kaspars Zurins from the project.

Farmers visiting the demonstration farms  can see the real effect of different innovations, or even just better living conditions for livestock, and this inspires them to try the good practice in their own farms. “The project started in 2012 with interest increasing year by year: in the beginning, there were about 30 participants coming to farm days, in 2016 there were up to 100 people attending the meetings” explains Kaspars.

People involved

Key actors in the process are

• Farm owners, professionals
• Latvian University of Agriculture professors and docents
• LLKC advisors
• LLKC livestock competence centre

AGRISPIN

In 2016, Latvia was the host of an AGRISPIN cross visit where all AGRISPIN partners meet to evaluate the host country’s best practice cases for innovation. One of these best practice cases visited and presented during this meeting was the Herbivorous Project.

Contact

Herbivorous:

Anita Siliņa, LRATC Herbivorous project manager, Rigas street 34, Ozolnieki, Latvia, LV 3018. Anita.silina@llkc.lv +371 63050220

Agrispin:

Heidi Hundrup Rasmussen, SEGES, DK (Project coordinator, Participant cross visit)

SEGES, Heidi Hundrup Rasmussen, Agro Food Park 15, DK-8200 Aarhus N, e-mail: hhr@seges.dk, telephone: +45 8740 5516

http://agrispin.eu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CV-Report-Lavia.pdf

http://agrispin.eu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Latvia_Case2.pdf

Photos: Herbivorous