Finca S’Ullestrar shows promising results in its first year of transition
The farm started this process last year, through the project ‘Pilot Farm in Sustainable Agriculture’ promoted by Menorca Preservation
Finca S’Ullestrar in Ciutadella has successfully completed the first of the three years of the Action Plan of the project ‘Pilot farm in sustainable agriculture’, promoted by Menorca Preservation with the technical advice of The Regen Academy. The project, focused on accompanying the farm in its transition towards organic certification through the implementation of regenerative practices, has already shown very encouraging results.
The project’s actions have been structured in four main areas: improving soil fertility, animal management, promoting biodiversity and marketing. Finca S’Ullestrar has successfully implemented the activities planned for this year, which include: the installation of nesting boxes for birds, bats and an insect hotel and the planting of plant strips around the orchard to promote biodiversity; the planting of permanent fodder and the implementation of a new management system of directed grazing.
Targeted grazing: a key action to avoid overgrazing and improve soil health
This technique is based on the planned rotation of pastures to reduce the stocking rate on the land. In this way, the land is divided into different plots, allowing the cattle to concentrate on each plot for short periods of time. As a result, by moving the cows from plot to plot on a daily basis, they benefit from the same amount of fresh feed, achieving greater stability in their diet and in turn, allowing the soil more time to recover.
More milk production with fewer cows
‘With the previous management, the cows consumed large quantities of fresh grass on the first day, but on the following days, before moving to another field, there was hardly any grass available and they were forced to feed on the less palatable grasses,’ explains Roser Febrer of The Regen Academy. She adds that, ‘although we are still waiting to compare data with future years, this past year we have observed an increase in milk production, which could be due to more stable feeding thanks to targeted management. In addition, the fact that we have obtained a higher volume of milk from fewer cattle compared to last year is a spectacular result”.
Forthcoming actions
In the coming year we will implement, among other things, the management of the bio-intensive vegetable garden in terraces, the rotational management of the hens and the feeding of livestock with organic feed, one of the requirements to obtain the certificate of the farm with the Organic quality seal.