Quel était le défi/problème abordé?
Raza Navarra is a North Spain extensive indigenous meat breed adapted to our conditions. After 30 years breeding to select the most prolificably maternal lines, the Raza Navarra Breeders Association (ARANA) is trying to introduce maternal index in order to improve productivity and profit. Due that these sheeps are not milked, the only way to calculate their maternal index is to measure the lambs growth. Handling to weight milk lambs in an extensive breed means lots of problems farmers are not willing to assume. These shortcomings to carry out the weight controls for further progress in the improvement of the breed are due to circumstances inherent to the lamb production system in our region:
- Increasing size of herds.
- Semi-extensive system, grazing every day after lambing, with the lambs remaining inside the farm’s facilities.
- Very adjusted labour force for animal management in farms.
- Advanced age of farmers.
- Discouragement due to insufficient profitability of livestock production.
Comment as-tu résolu le problème?
Implementing a scale which registers individual lamb weight without farmer interaction in 19 farms in Navarra. It includes a camera that discriminates between one or more lambs on the scale and if they have fully stepped on it, to validate the data. This control is carried out during the 24-hours of the day using infrared cameras for night-time weight validation. Lambs are identified by means of an electronic ear tag so the scale registers their individual number and the date they have been weighed. Data is sent at least once every 24 heures, to ARANA offices for processing and checking the functioning of the equipment. This will have a consequent impact on the sustainability of the farms, making them more competitive and profitable and improving the life quality of farmers.
Ce qui est innovant dans votre cas pratique?
The use of an electronic ear tag together with a weighing scale capable of discriminating whether the lamb is in a position to be weighed and if it is, to record the weighing and send it for processing by mathematical calculations to allow the categorisation of animals by their maternal index, is a challenge for sheep production in the current context of the sheep meat sector. The scale is lightweight so that it can be moved around the farm and used on each individual batch of lambs over the course of a week. It has also been designed on the basis of farmer feedback on lambs behaviour.
Quels sont les facteurs de succès pour résoudre le problème
The cooperation among all the actors involved: the farmers, the Raza Navarra Breeders Association (ARANA), Groupe CIRCA Europe Limited, the scale manufacturers and the PGI Cordero de Navarra. The funding of the 29 scales’ costs by the Measure 16.2 of the Rural Development Programme of Government of Navarra. Being able to demonstrate to the farmers the main advantages of the proposed self-weighing:
- Improved economic performance due to reduced days to slaughter or weaning of lambs due to improved milk value of breeding stock.
- Increase in the quality of the suckling lambs on sale as the mother has more milk, as is the case with suckling lambs protected under the PGI Cordero de Navarra.
- Decrease in the mortality of lambs due to starvation.
- Modernisation of farms through the use of autonomous scales based on the electronic identification of lambs and image processing.
- Improved traceability from producer to consumer through the use of electronic identification from birth.
- Reducing lamb stress in weighting without manipulating the animals, avoiding carcasses injuries.
- Efficient use of the farmer’s labour, to achieve the objective of improving the quality and quantity of lambs.
Échecs inattendus, si seulement
At the beginning of the project it was realised that on larger farms, data collection with only one scale would be impossible. So several weighing devices were assigned to farms with more than 750 ewes.
Leçons apprises
Nowadays sheep sector lacks of financial return, it is aged and farmers are discouraged, but even then it needs imaginative technical improvements to try to increase its profits. Selecting ewes by their maternal index could reduce the time lambs need to reach their optimal weight to go to the market, which means costs are likely to be lower. It has been a major challenge for both the technicians and the producers to approach this project as an innovation in the way of working and to achieve results without increasing the farmer’s workload. The final assessment of the project was very positive.
- Ear tags facilitates daily herd management to farmers.
- The knowledge of lamb weight, allowed farmes to check the progress of lambing, to predict pathology and to know the best time to sell or wean the lambs.
- ARANA and INTIA working together to contribute to the maintenance and progress of the livestock sector.
- Better quality information for the selection of the Navarre breed of sheep.
- Improvement of animal traceability.
Quel rôle joue le conseiller ou le service de conseil dans le cas pratique
- Support farmers in the installation of the scales. Most suitable location where lambs have solitary access.
- Training for farmers on the operation and use of the scales.
- Organisation of demonstration days.
- Disseminate the use of autoweighing to other farmers in Navarra (video, article, réseaux…).
- Data analysis to evaluate its incorporation as a selection criterion in the improvement scheme for the Navarre breed.
Votre approche peut-elle être transférée et/ou adaptée à d'autres défis d'innovation et régions?
Oui.
Le moment est critique pour mettre fin à la culture de couverture et la disponibilité de la sertisseuse à rouleaux peut représenter un goulot d'étranglement, please contact Maite Aguilar Ramírez email: maguilar@intiasa.es
https://x.com/IntiaSa/status/1217043957357649920
https://x.com/IntiaSa/status/1205106164171718661
https://x.com/IntiaSa/status/1205106164171718661
