IN TOSCANA
Alberto Mantino*1, Iride Volpi1, Simona Bosco1, Giorgio Ragaglini1, Enrico Bonari1, Alice Cappucci2, Eleonora Bulleri2
Arianna Buccioni3, Carlo Viti3, Fabiola Giannerini4, Fabio Villani4, Carlo Santarelli4, Marcello Mele2 1 Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, Pisa, PI Italy
2 Centro di Ricerche agro-ambientali Enrico Avanzi, San Piero a Grado, Pisa, PI Italy
3 Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Agroalimentari e dell’Ambiente, Università di Firenze, Piazzale delle Cascine 18, Firenze FI, Italy
4 Caseificio Sociale di Manciano, Società Agricola Cooperativa, Loc. Piano di Cirignano, Manciano GR, Italy
Abstract
In Tuscany, the ewes farming for dairy production is facing low incomes and scarce competitiveness of farms, mainly due to a poor level of innovation concerning the management of both the cropping and animal systems. Consequently, in the recent years, the milk quality decreased preventing the production of high-quality dairy products. Moreover, in the Mediterranean, climate change is leading to an increase frequency of extreme rainfall events, raising the risk of soil loss by water. Thus, novel cropping systems have to be more resilient to these new conditions to guarantee the conservation of farm profitability and natural resources.
Within this framework, the STILNOVO project (sustainability and innovation technology for dairy sheep production) is aiming at: (i) improving milk quality at competitive costs, (ii) increasing the efficiency of the grassland-based production by rational management, (iii) optimizing the ewes feeding, (iv) decreasing the risk of contamination by clostridia bacteria and (v) optimizing the use of bio-active compounds for cheese aging.
Keywords: milk quality, legume, soil erosion, extension services, resilience.
Parole chiave: qualità del latte, leguminose; erosione del suolo; servizi per l’agricoltura, resilienza. Introduction
The dairy sheep chain in Tuscany (Italy) is experiencing a particularly unfavourable economic situation, both regarding milk production and processing.
Indeed, dairies have been pointing out since a while a worsening of the milk quality and they are trying to cope with this phenomenon through supplementary premiums given for high quality milk, determined according to specific protein and fat contents. Furthermore, diaries need to introduce innovations in milk processing to reach new consumers and expand marketing opportunities.
On the other hand, the low profitability of the livestock farms prevent farmers to invest in high quality milk production. Another problem concerns the environment risks related to the annual-based forage cropping system in the inner hills of Tuscany. In fact, climate change, and in particular the variation of rainfall amount and distribution, is increasing the risk of soil erosion, that may be mitigated by an adjustment of the cropping systems (Vallebona et al., 2015). Thus, fostering the introduction of perennial crops may reduce the risk of soil erosion due to rainfalls (Vallebona et al., 2016). Moreover, an higher presence of legumes, both annual and perennial, can reduce the supply of nitrogen fertilizers and the relative nitrogen losses in soil, water and atmosphere (Luscher et al., 2014). In the Mediterranean, in order to improve milk quality, the inclusion in the dairy ewes diet of appropriately formulated concentrates is essential to integrate green and dry fodders in several periods of the year (Mele, 2009).
Within the Rural Development Programme (2007-2013) of Tuscany Region, the innovation transfer project “Innovative forage cropping and feeding for the production of Pecorino Toscano cheese with nutraceutical properties” (FORMA NOVA) has been funded (by Measure 124), with the dairy of Manciano (GR, Italy) “Caseificio Sociale di Manciano” as coordinator. FORMA NOVA was aimed at improving the ewes milk quality for the production of “Pecorino Toscano DOP” (Pecorino cheese of Tuscany region), focusing on nutraceutical properties, on the sustainability of forage cropping and on the precision animal feeding.
The key results of the project were:
(i) the increase in productivity of dairy ewes and the increase in self-sufficiency of the involved farms;
(ii) the development of a new product named “Amico del Cuore”, a Pecorino DOP cheese naturally enriched with functional fatty acids.
Exploiting the experiences gained during the project FORMA NOVA, the new innovation transfer project (Measure 16.2 – PSR 2014-2020) “Sustainability and innovative technologies for sheep milk production” (STILNOVO) aimed at:
(i) improving the milk quality at suitable costs for farmers; (ii) improving the productivity of ewes through rational grazing; (iii) improving the efficiency of concentrate supply;
(iv) reducing the risk of milk contamination with clostridia;
(v) optimize the use of bioactive compounds for Pecorino DOP cheese conservation during seasoning.
The aim of this article is to present the STILONOVO activities that concern the innovation transfer relative to the production of sheep milk for “Pecorino Toscano DOP”.
Materials and methods
STILNOVO involves 9 farmers associated to the dairy of Manciano (GR, Italy), “Caseificio Sociale di Manciano” (CSM), which is the coordinator of the project. The associated beneficiaries of the project are: the Centre for agro-environmental research “Enrico Avanzi” (CiRAA) of the University of Pisa, the Institute of Life Sciences of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa) (SSSA) and the Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences (DISPAA) of the University of Florence.
Concerning agronomic activities, the actions of the project are aimed at innovating the cropping systems in the involved farms: replacing annual forage crops, mainly oat (Avena sativa L.) and berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.), with perennial crops, favouring the inclusion of legumes such as sulla, (Hedysarum coronarium L.) and common sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.), and warm-season species such as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor spp. Sudanense L.) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) (Action 2.1). Moreover, the innovation in livestock management will be focused on optimizing the use of fodders, increasing the intra-annual distribution of grazing period, promoting best practices for livestock grazing management and improving the techniques for haymaking and fodder conservation (Actions 2.1 and 2.2). Within the project, the use of specific software for the correct formulation of animal diets, will be favoured. In each farm, fodders and concentrate will be sampled and analysed to create the databases that will be used in the diet formulation software (Action 2.2). Furthermore, samples of milk from individual farm will be collected and analysed weekly to evaluate the coagulation properties, casein and fatty acids contents.
The results will be integrated with data collected from the diary of Manciano “Caseificio Sociale di Manciano” to evaluate the effects of the precision feeding techniques on the milk quality and quantity (Actions 2.2 and 2.4).
The risk of clostridia contamination of milk will be evaluated and the innovations to reduce that risk will be transfer in Action 2.3. In Action 2.4 techniques for the bactofugation, to reduce the risk of clostridia contamination without reducing the cheese yield, will be tested and transferred.
Moreover, the environmental impacts of the business as usual systems will be compared with the systems after the introduction of the innovations proposed in Actions 2.1 and 2.2 through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), to evaluate the potential mitigation of the environmental impacts obtained by the project (Action 2.5).
Expected results
The innovative agricultural practices proposed by STILNOVO, applied in other regions, have been increased the resilience of cropping systems to climate change and they have contributed to guarantee the sustainable intensification of agriculture productions (Wezel et al., 2014; Altieri et al., 2015). The increased intra-annual distribution of grazing periods and the increased availability of summer pastures, will contribute to the deseasonalization of milk production, that will guarantee a higher profitability of the farm.
Furthermore, the diaries strongly require deseasonalization to achieve a greater homogeneity of milk collected and processed during the year.
The integration of the diets of dairy ewes with concentrates, mainly self-produced in the farm or produced by local farmers, will guarantee an increment of ewes productivity and, at the same time, an improvement of quality and sanitary characteristics of milk.
Furthermore, the improvement of milk quality will lead to an increase of farm profitability due to the supplementary premiums given by the dairy for high quality milk.
The disseminations activities within the STILNOVO project will lead to a large involvement of the farms present in the region and of all the stakeholders of the dairy sheep chain for the production of Pecorino Toscano cheese DOP.
Fig. 1 Scheme of the actions of each partner involved in the STILNOVO project.
Fig. 1 Schema delle azioni condotte dai singoli partner coinvolti nel progetto STILNOVO.
Bibliography
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Funding
STILNOVO is co-financed by the Rural Development Programme (2014-2020) of Tuscany Region, through the measure 16.2 (2015). I c nln I I n n n