Livestock Experimentation and Demonstration

Livestock Experimentation and Demonstration

This section collaborates with the sector by providing models and representations of regional stock farming activity, technical and economic support to specific farms, and project studies adapted to individual situations. It advocates management models and practices which are compatible with the sustainable use of regional land and resources and with quality food production and animal welfare policies.

It actively seeks the participation and manifestations of interest of the organizations related to agricultural and livestock development and rural development: public and private institutions of the Principality of Asturias, livestock cooperatives and associations, businesses, etc.

It operates through:

• The design and execution of applied research projects related to the agricultural and livestock systems in Asturias.
• The training and monitoring of a network of collaborating farms to obtain technical-economic and agricultural and environmental reference data for their subsequent treatment employing diagnostic and assessment techniques.
• The promotion of pilot programmes to activate sustainable diversification and productivity in the rural setting.
• The promotion of effective and sustainable technologies and practices related to both the conventional and the ecological production field, as well as transformation processes.

Scientific and Technological Offer

• Establishment and putting into practice of a technical-economic sourcebook for agricultural and livestock development as well as providing guidelines for installation or investment projects on conventional and ecological farms.
• Development of comprehensive diagnostics for different livestock production systems to be made available to stock farmers.
• Technical assistance related to the technical and strategic aspects of greatest interest for each agricultural and livestock production system.
• Testing of integrated strategies using sustainable natural resources and land development.
• Promotion of the sector through demonstrations and innovative projects, both in the production field and in product transformation.

Programme

Research and demonstrations in agrarian socio-economics. Analysis of agricultural and livestock systems in wetlands. Development of strategies for the integrated use of natural resources. Key words: agricultural and livestock systems, socio-economics, development, land, resources, modelling.

This deals with a general support programme for SERIDA in collaboration with other organizations. Through this programme, transversal and multi-disciplinary initiatives are adopted for the carrying out of research and demonstration projects. Collaboration is sought at a regional, national and international level. Both in-house and external projects are promoted, as well as participation in projects fostered by other institutions.

Lines of research and/or technology development.

Head: José Carlos Barrio de Pedro

•  Farm modelling

Surveys and monitoring of reference farm networks. Evaluation of the information available in data files and models for treating such data. Operating models and monographs on farms. Typologies based on Technical-Economic Orientation and on Economic Size. Typologies developed with the aid of experts. Farm classification. Allows for the provision of representation from the local or regional agricultural and livestock sector, as well as the establishment of technical-economic reference matter for collective (group council, support for decision-makers, etc.) or individual (project study, technical-economic support) applications.

UNESCO codes 3104(90) and 5312(01)

•  Agricultural and environmental diagnosis of model farms

Work is undertaken via the analysis of the production system and its topic-related or overall risks of environmental impact. It allows for project development in lasting, integrated agriculture, the proposal of scenarios for socio-economic and environmental commitment, and the design, piloting and evaluation of projects related to farm structure and operating evolution.

UNESCO codes 3104(90), 5312(01) and 5312(93)

•  Modelling of agricultural systems

Multi-scaled delimitation and characterization of agricultural landscape units. This involves land diagnostics support and the characterization and sampling of areas for specific studies, as well as the contextual analysis of local and/or thematic studies.

UNESCO codes 5312(93), 5401(04), 5404 and 6311(04)

Scientific and Technological Offer of the Research Group

• T echnical-economic sourcebook (model farms) . Establishment and putting into practice of a technical-economic sourcebook for agricultural and livestock development as well as providing guidelines for installation or investment projects on conventional and ecological farms.
• Comprehensive farming diagnostics. Development of comprehensive diagnostics (technical-economic and agricultural and environmental) for different livestock production systems to be made available to stock farmers.
• Design of sustainable development strategies. Design and testing of integrated strategies using sustainable natural resources and land development.
• Technical assistance for farms . Assistance related to the technical and strategic aspects of greatest interest for each agricultural and livestock production system.
• Agricultural and livestock demonstrations. Promotion of the sector through demonstrations and innovative projects, both in the production field and in product transformation.

Resources of the group

• Socio-economic and agricultural and environmental survey models. Survey models directed at agricultural farms and adapted to different levels of analysis.
• Database for reference collaborating farms . Database for reference collaborating farms, divided into different milk production systems (intensification levels) and farm sizes .
• Management and socio-economic and agricultural and environmental data-handling models . Data model fitted to the most widely-used survey standards, intended to automatically express thematic results on variables and indicators in terms of yearly averages or in monthly evolution graphs and for diverse accuracy levels and choice of variables and indicators in the form of periodic reports (annual) or tables (which permit comparison between farms).
• Operating models and monographs on farms. Interpretation of survey reports in the form of a structured presentation which permits analysis of the functioning of individual farms; for example, reference farms which are representative of a specific production system.
• Farm typology and classification algorithms. Typology by experts who contribute to the definition of discriminating indicators and their different thresholds for each type of farm, as well as the validation and application of the resulting types. Classification of the farms in the typology using a relative similarity algorithm. EU Community typology derived from the combination of the Technical-Economic Orientation (TEO) and the European Economic Size Unit (ESU), both based on the gross margin of the different farm activities to be classified.
• Agricultural and environmental diagnostic model of farming. A model which permits the agricultural and environmental analysis of the production system and its overall or thematic risks of environmental impact, and which calculates scores and graphs related to a broad battery of impact indicators, thus allowing overall or thematic diagnosis and offering the necessary pointers for corrective measures.
• Evaluation model of the profitability of converting from conventional milk production to ecological production. A model comparing a real situation (conventional) and a goal situation (ecological) which allows cost differentials in the change-over in production model to be determined for a specified period of time, at the end of which, said differentials are synthesized through the calculation of the Net Present Value (NPV) of the production model.
• Algorithms for the delimitation and characterization of agricultural landscape units . Multi-scaled delimitation and characterization of agricultural landscape units through a combined system of extensible model-unit sampling (image analysis) and subject information superpositioning (visual interpretation or through geographic systems of information).

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