Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
where the highest points are awarded to the prevention of waste production. The
assessment covers the treatment and storage methods of organic and problem waste, as
well as waste that can be burned or recycled.
Today landscape management receives a great deal of attention in agriculture. The
preservation of traditional woodland pastures and meadows is particularly important.
CFEAT assesses the level and amount of measures related to landscape management,
including measures to enhance biological diversity. The assessment also covers the
general tidiness of the farm and the state of the buildings and roads.
Animal welfare
The care of the animals and conditions in the production building are divided into
three sub-sections: care of the animals, conditions in the building and the animals'
possibilities for natural behaviour, movement, access outdoors and social interaction. The
professional skills of the person caring for the animals, care of the health and safety of the
animals and prevention of infectious animal diseases are taken into account in the
assessment. Detailed classification facilitates the assessment and reduces the differences
in the grading between different evaluators.
Report
The farmer receives a report on the assessment. The report gives the grades for the
activity as a whole and for the different sub-sections as both figures and descriptions. The
material left on the farm includes the detailed grounds for the classification in different
sections, which shows the strengths in the current activities and development needs, as
well as the targets to be set for this, together with the farmer. The customer also receives
further written instructions concerning the sections to be assessed according to the needs
on each farm.
It is also possible to compile summary reports from several farms
to get an
overview
of how environmental measures are carried out on farms on average, and what
the biggest development targets in the future are.
Example: results based on evaluations carried out in 2000-04 (137 farms)
The average size of the farms shown in these results is 42 hectares and the average
number of livestock units is 32. The farmers were very active and they participated
regularly in training and advisory sessions. The age of the farmers varied between 36 and
45 years, and most of them had been educated in an agricultural school or college. 36% of
the farms intended to continue the present type of milk production and 48% planned to
increase the production capacity.
Nine of the farms practised organic production, while the rest were conventional
cattle farms. 74% of the farms were dairy farms and 16% practised combined milk and
beef production. In the handling of manure, the dry and liquid manure storage systems
were about equally common. Most of the buildings were tied stall barns (104 farms),
while about a quarter used free stall or cold free stall housing (33 farms). More than half
of the farms engaged in machine cooperation with other farms.
The following paragraphs deal with the results of the plant production section only.
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