dairy farm institute of animal production - giannitsa

The dairy sheep farm of the Institute of

Animal Production is located just after the

village of Paralimni Giannitson. The farm

keeps two pure sheep breeds: those of

Chios and of Florina, with high and

medium milk yield respectively. They are

kept indoors most of the time with rather

limited grazing.

They are fed with roughages and

concentrates, with their higher percentage

to be produced in the Institute own land.

The farm has 350 sheep of Chios breed

and 250 of Florina breed, with an average

milk yield of 300 and 187 lit/year

respectively.

Dairy Farm: INSTITUTE OF ANIMAL

PRODUCTION – GIANNITSA

Country: Greece

Region : Giannitsa of Pella

Climate area: Mediterranean

Forage System Code:

Semi-intensive dairy sheep farm

Address: Paralimni Giannitson, Pella,P.O. 58100

Tel.: 0030 23820 31700/+306938417006

email: [email protected]

Production Destination: Feta Cheese(PDO)

Breeding system: Semi-intensive

Livestock: Dairy sheep

Longevity: 4 years

Consistency: 650

- in lactation period: 510

- in dry period: 10

Utilized agricultural area (ha) : 318

Alfalfa: 129

Corn: 80

Wheat: 60

Barley: 42

Grassland: 7

DAIRY FARM

INSTITUTE OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION -

GIANNITSA

Forage Systems for less GHG emission and more soil carbon

sink in Continental and Mediterranean Agricultural Areas

Farm activities to mitigate Greenhouse Gases

(GHG) emission

Forage production with use of sheep

manure instead of mineral fertilizers

Increase of the co-activated area with

cereals/legumes to reduce the mineral

fertilizers and the percentage of the

purchased feedstuffs, and to increase the

soil organic carbon sink.

Harvesting of forages at earlier growth

stage for higher digestibility and lower

methane emission

Chemical composition (%) of the feedstuffs used for the sheep feeding

Component (%)

(nutrients)

Alfalfa

hay

Wheat

straw

Legumes-

Cereals Hay

Concentrates

Dry Matter 91.57 90.04 90.70 88.30

Crude Protein (CP) 14.55 1,.5 12.58 18.15

Ether Extract (EE) 0.99 0.97 3.10 2.35

Ash 6.79 7.14 4.24 5.07

NDF 47.32 73.28 44.32 13.28

ADF 36.85 53.18 33.18 10.73

DM%* DM % ** CP % Ash % E.E. % NDF % ADF %

Fertilizer 17.23 92.42 14.82 9.82 2.65 49.24 29.23

Manure 18.35 92.58 19.21 9.45 2.10 45.18 26.58

Chemical composition (% in DM) of grass from co-cultivated vetch-oats with

sheep manures vs. mineral fertilizer

*Dry Matter (DM) in the initial fresh grass sample

** Dry Matter of the dried grass sample during the analysis

Manure

Fertilizer



DAIRY FARM

INSTITUTE OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION -GIANNITSA

Demonstration Day in the Farm

The cultivation

techniques applied at the

farm aim to produce hay of

high quality and nutritive

value. The alfalfa hay

cuttings are done when the

plants are in the early to

mid-bloom stage, while the

oats’ harvesting for hay

when the plants are at the

:”milky” stage. The overall

objective is to combine the

max yield of dry matter/Ha

with the highest

digestibility.

The

conservation of

alfalfa and

vetch-oats hay is

done by sun

drying, right

after harvesting

to the bales’

making, in order

to minimize the

nutrient’s loss

and to prevent

the production of

mycotoxins

during their

storage

S a m p l i n g a n d c h e m i c a l a n a l y s i s o f f e e d s t u f f s

Approx ima te l y once pe r mon th

rep resen ta t i ve hay and concen t ra te

samp les a re t aken f o r chem ica l

ana l yses (d r y ma t te r, c rude p ro te i n ,

ash , e the r ex t rac t s , NDF and ADF)

and f o r myco tox i ns con tam ina t i on

de te rm ina t i on . Those ana l yses a re

pe r fo rmed a t t he Dp t . o f Nu t r i t i ona l

Phys io l ogy and Feed ing o f t he AUA.



DAIRY FARM


The aim of farm function and management is to describe:

the production, evaluation and use of forages produced in the farm

and used for sheep’s feeding

the farm management and feeding practices followed with the

objective to reduce the GHG emissions

the good and environmentally friendly practices (GP) which should

be applied at the farm in order to reduce the GHG emissions

The Good Practices (GP) proposed by the

project Forage4Climate and accepted for

application by the farm are:

Forage production with use of sheep

manure instead of mineral fertilizers

Increase of the co-activated area with

cereals/legumes to reduce the mineral

fertilizers and the percentage of the

purchased feedstuffs, and to increase

the soil organic carbon sink.

Harvesting of forages at earlier growth

stage for higher digestibility and lower

methane emission

The Institute of Animal

Production in Giannitsa

grows the total amount (100%)

of the forages fed to sheep

and cows and a higher

percentage of the

concentrates (corn, bar ley,

wheat) .



DAIRY FARM


Good Practices

Forage4climate is a four-year project that aims to demonstrate how

agricultural systems related to milk production can contribute to the

mitigation of climate change through:

-The adoption of good agricultural and farming practices that can be useful

to limit GHG emissions and to maintain or increase carbon sink in soils

(arable land, meadows and pastures) used to produce forages for

ruminants (cattle, sheep and goats),

- the development and dissemination of tools for accounting carbon stock

and GHG emissions in order to evaluate the effects of mitigation

intervantions.

-Forage4climate believes that it is possible to reduce the average carbon

footprint of the production of 1 kg of milk by 5%. This would represent a

reduction in emissions of 740,000 tons of CO2 equivalents per year for

milk production in Italy and Greece.

For the purposes of the project three regions in Pianure

Padiana (Piemonte and Emilia-Ramagna), Sardinia and

4 greek regions (Peloponnese,Thessaly, Sterea Ellada

και Epirus) were selected.

dairy farm institute of animal production - giannitsa

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