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We were hosted in the training centre of Fundación Monte Mediterrane, a 700 Ha estate north of Sevilla in Andalucia. The Foundation offers a working example of traditional farming methods in The Dehesa, with extensive grazing of pigs, cattle, and sheep, plus cork production and a variety of research/educational projects on site.

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The Dehesa is an ancient agroforestry system in Southern Spain, which involves the integration of animals and trees within a low input farming system.  This is also sometimes described as 'Silvopasture' - trees and grazing.

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We went on a number of visits to learn about the supply chain for products produced on the Dehesa - Merino wool, Ibérico pork, cork, organic vegetables and lamb.

We were also given a talk about the 'Natural Park' system in Spain, which offers a way of working with landowners to manage areas of high biodiversity value while maintaining farming culture.

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The cattle moved around a lot in a day. They seem to have favoured pastures in the morning, which were grazed hard, then they often moved to scrubbier areas in the afternoon. They loved using the trees as scratching posts or hiding places. Without any predator pressure or electric fencing control, the herd had a tendency to spread out and graze selectively.

I was surprised that the farm don't restrict the area the cattle have access to from day to day, which would provide more recovery time and increase grass growth during the Winter/Spring. In turn this would create potential for deferred grazing over the drought months of summer. They are reliant on feeding the cattle straw and alfalfa nuts over the summer in the current system, while the sheep are up north grazing mountain pastures.

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1500-2000 pigs slaughtered in this unit per season from Dec-March. There's a 5 year turn around and production costs are €2-3k. That means €1-1.5k profit per pig.

Retail price = €250 per kilo sliced (organic)

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The Merino sheep are managed in a separate area of the farm from the pigs and cattle. They run in smaller flocks each with at least one guard dog.

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They keep native breeds Retinto & Berrendo. There is natural leadership in the Berrendo, who often lead the herd. The cows are with the bull from Dec - June, which leads to a long calving window (Oct-April) but they are easy calvers. They run one bull with 30 cows and they graze extensively with free access to 80Ha of wood pasture.

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The foundation buys the piglets in, they are not breeding. They keep 170 pigs for 2 yrs (2 generations). They are given an area calculated at 2ha per pig.

Each pig eats up to 1/2 ton of acorns in 6 months, and they are not allowed any other feed from Oct-Feb to be classed as Ibérico. Slaughter takes place in February when they are 22-26 months old and weigh around 180kilos.

They need to be run very extensively as they have a heavy impact on the ground. Certain areas showed signs of soil erosion where they pigs spent the most time.

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The wool processing plant only deals with the co-ops (not individual producers).  There is great pride in co-ops, they get paid a standard rate for their wool then a premium at the end of the season based on quality. Those farmers who don't have a good quality or supply very dirty wool will have to pay a fine (depending on the co-op’s rules) which keeps standards high.

There are 8 coop members of this processing plant. Each co-op has 200-300 producer members and the sheep breeders are in control of their co-op and each have an equal say.

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The hay meadows are resown every two years. Due to the winter drought and poor growth rate, they decided to graze some of these meadows with the sheep rather than cut them this year.

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The farm is part of an organic co-op with 37 producer-members selling organic lamb. There is very little demand for lamb in Spain compared to pork and beef, so most is sold in France or other countries, particularly to a Halal market  The lambs are seen as a by-product of the wool production.

Lambs go to slaughter at 25-30kg live weight. Shearing happens in late April and it must be a few weeks before Transhumance starts.

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How much wool do they process in a year?

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How much wool do they process in a year?

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The fleeces are delivered in 80kg bags (2-3kg per sheep), and once it's sorted and pressed, each bale weighs 400-500kg. They process in the region of 4 million kilos of wool per year.

This plant only looks after the classification and pressing of fleeces.  The bales are then sent to Portugal to be washed and return clean. Currently one of the only organic washing facilities is in Uruguay, but they have recently bought a wool washing plant in the North of Spain that they hope to convert into an organic facility.

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Once the wool is washed, carded and combed you have 2 products: the top quality merino and a less valuable by-product.

The irony is that most of their finished product is sold on to China for manufacturing into clothing, hardly any of it stays in Spain. Other countries like Italy and Mexico also buy it.

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At the plant, the wool is sorted by hand and classified according to a variety of measures. Farmers must separate brown and white wool. The dirty wool gets shaken to remove as much soil/sand/manure as possible.

All wool comes in with QR code to identify the co-op, batch etc and then they add a classification based on:

-fineness

-length

-amount of wool per fleece (efficiency)

-greesyness, plastic contamination, dirt (sanctions)

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Transhumance involves the moving of livestock (in this case sheep) from the dry land of the South to lusher mountain pastures of the North (Castilla & Leon). It's very like the traditional practice of taking cattle to the Shielings for the summer in Scotland, but they travel much larger distances in Spain!

It takes 30-34 days for shepherds to walk the sheep, leaving in mid May, arriving in mid June. There is a network of special roads for the purpose (Cañada Real - royal route). Someone in the office calls ahead to each town/village to let them know shepherds will be passing through.

Transhumance only provides work for 4 months, so the plan is to create a cooperative for shepherds to work on infrastructure in the mountains, to provide work the whole year.

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It takes about 50yrs before the first harvest can be taken. The 1st harvest of cork (Bornizo) is not usually used as it's not very valuable, ground up. By the 3rd harvest it is more valuable and can be used for bottle corks.

A tree can sustain another 12 harvests, every 9-12yrs.  Cork is harvested June-July, and can only be separated when the cambium layer is humid enough, so it can’t be done on a dry year.

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Transhumance

The "Transhumance", moving sheep from Andalusia and Extremadura to the mountain pastures in the León and Palenica provinces is not only a tradition which is thousands of years old or an intelligent use of natural resources, but also bears in it the secret of biodiversity. This way of livestock keeping is extremely endangered und should be revived. Fundación Monte Mediterráneo works to reinforce it so that there will be a positive impact on all natural processes and species - especially endangered ones.

In the transhumance the following occurs: the Mediterranean dehesa recovers since it is not trampled nor cropped to the last blade of grass and is prepared to absorb the first rainfalls of the fall properly. The labor on the dehesa, due to the absence of the sheep, is less and the workers deal better with the high temperatures in summer.

On the mountain pastures in the León and Palencia provinces the bush encroachment is reduced producing grazing land - both measure reduce the wildfire risk. The bush encroachment changes landscapes and leads to a reduction of biodiversity which affects most the less adaptable species, like the Brown Bear, the Cantabrian Capericaillie or the Bearded Vulture.

The sheep do their "natural job" eating fresh green grass, fertilizing naturally and creating pasture land. And incidentally, the sheep do not need any concentrated feed which reduces the CO ²-footprint as well as the use of water and transportation - consequently, transhumance is an activity which is independent from the international market. Seasonal employment in deprived areas is created and old professions can be rehabilitated and integrated into modern, ecological processes.

Besides the importance of the transhumance for livestock breeding we have the opportunity to appreciate a profession which has molded Spain for centuries accumulating an enormous knowledge and experience concerning nature and livestock breeding and is threatened to disappear. Therefor training and education programs are part of the project.

Extensive pasture farming with sheep and goats essential for the conservation of species and ecosystems in Spain, is at a crossroad which will be decisive for Spain's nature and natural processes in the future.

Due to the decoupling of the EU aid and the competition from imports from other countries have forced many small extensive farms to close down. Shutdowns -reinforced by certain measures, incentives and decoupling - leads big farms to intensify their livestock production even more in order to stay competitive and to be able to cope with the ever stricter veterinary regulations intending to lower the risk of spreading diseases, especially those which are transmissible to humans (zoonosis); on the other hand it is exactly intensive farming with the specific conditions and concentrated feed which makes animals receptive for diseases.

Since many years the dehesa suffers from trampling of high livestock levels during the summer which produces erosion when the first rainfalls start in fall and the grass cannot start to grow until later, almost in winter. In rain-laden years with heavy rainfall, roads and ponds suffer big damages because the soil cannot absorb the water.

Society only knows one weapon against this inexorable tendency: to catalog, to protect, to supervise...create scientific researches of the processes forgetting at the same time that anything which is not productive, sooner or later, will disappear.

We have faith in a new model of transhumance, a "renewed transhumance" which adds to the livestock breeding the additional value of the conservation of endangered species which depends up to a large extend on extensive livestock breeding, especially the extensive sheep breeding. In return the sector should transfer this additional value into sustainable measures and formulas of preserving and improving biodiversity because: lamb and wool production go along with the preservation of Brown Bears or Capericaillies and therefor are beneficial for the whole society and themselves. "Collateral products" like honey and pollen being produced as well in the North as well in the South enlarge the range of activities of the herdsmen. This goals should emerge from the shadows and be disseminated into all social areas - for the good of the mentioned animals.

Eventually a herdsman can temporarily be working as a beekeeper or nature guide in the mountains.....

We suggest a series of measures for a new concept of active nature conservation incorporating species, ecosystems and landscapes. Sheep farmers who participate in the project can use it as a unique selling point in their sales and marketing strategies. The survival of several wild animal species is directly linked to the presence and the life process of the sheep.

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Transhumance | Fundación Monte Mediterráneo

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The "Transhumance", moving sheep from Andalusia and Extremadura to the mountain pastures in the León and Palenica provinces is not only a tradition which is thousands of years old or an intelligent use of natural resources, but also bears in it the secret of biodiversity.

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Trees are more at risk from bush fire when the cork is removed and are also at risk of attack by various pests. With increasing risk of droughts and bush fires due to climate change, and the stress to the trees from harvesting, I think this calls into question the sustainability of cork production longer term.

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At the cork research institute they are working with artists and designers to develop products to show how the first & second cork harvests can be used, in furniture and insulation, to avoid waste and get the most out of each harvest.

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Fresh grilled pork with pistou (tomato and vegetable stew)

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Wild foraged mushrooms (Boletes) sliced and served raw with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper

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Update 12th February 2022: We have new dates for NET courses in 2022. The decision of the UK government to leave the Erasmus+ programme will not affect this project. We will update participants of any new travel insurance and visa regulations.

Participants from the postponed course in 2020 will be offered first choice on any rescheduled courses in 2022.

We have confirmed dates and details. We will post them here and share through our consortium.

Application Deadline: TBA

Host: Ernestine Lüdeke ( Fundación Monte Mediterráneo/ Dehesa San Francisco)

Course Dates: 19 to 26 April 2022

Preparation Meeting Date: TBA

Aims & Themes: demonstrating organic agriculture & agroforestry in action on marginal land; cooperatives and rural economic diversity; conservation of habitats, species and soils Getting to know Dehesa San Francisco - walk/hike

Draft Itinerary:

Visit to ham production

Visit to Aracena: Nature Park Museum, Meeting with the Head of Nature Park Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche; lunch at an ecological village (access walking) with sociocratic governance.

Visit to Villanueva de la Serena Lamb and Wool cooperative

Visit to Wildlife Project with bird hospital in Villafranca de los Barros

Visit to the slum in Sevilla and the Horticulture project of FMM

Visit to Sevilla University - weed expert

Reports from 2019 and film from 2019

Click here to download the full NET course list for 2022.

Click here to download the NET 5 2022 application form. (SNH staff are very
welcome to email an expression of interest but they must complete their own internal HR process before submitting an application form)

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SPAIN: Sustainable Farming & Agroforestry in the Dehesas of Andalucia

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Update 12th February 2022: We have new dates for NET courses in 2022. The decision of the UK government to leave the Erasmus+ programme will not affect this project. We will update participants of any new travel insurance and visa regulations. Participants from the postponed course in 2020 will be offered first choice on any rescheduled courses in 2022.