Thessaloniki, Greece \u2013 This year, the program \u201cSheep and Goat: Enhancing Dairy and Meat Sector\u201d at the American Farm School (AFS), a part of the \u201cNew Agriculture for a New Generation\u201d (NANG) program, will collaborate with the Alternative Tourism program at AFS to promote the city of Xanthi in\u00a0a three-day international conference, 7-9 June, celebrating the Belle Epoque era of Xanthi and its long-forgotten breed of shorthorn cattle.<\/p>\n
Xanthi and the Rhodope Mountains are home to the Greek shorthorn cattle, the only indigenous breed left in Greece. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to see what we can do to save this special breed,\u201d said Vicky Krystallidou, project leader for the\u00a0Sheep and Goat program. \u201cIf we lose it, we won\u2019t have any more.\u00a0All the other breeds are imported from Europe.\u201d\u00a0Only 600-700 of the cattle remain, grazing freely in the mountains between Xanthi and Komotini. \u201cWe hope to certify the breed, giving farmers an opportunity to sell it at a higher price,\u201d Vicky said. \u201cIf they are paid more, they will have a reason to protect it. We\u2019ve done this before, with the Dexter breed of cattle in the UK.\u201d The shorthorn cattle doesn\u2019t produce much milk, but the program has partnered with Brigade, an association of chefs, who will come to Xanthi to make recipes from the meat. \u201cThey say it really does taste better,\u201d Vicky said. \u201cAnd since the breed is from Pomakohoria, we\u2019ll also have an opportunity to work with the Pomaks, Greek Muslims who live in villages in the Rhodope Mountains, and highlight their culture and their involvement in cattle rearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Sheep and Goat program has a number of other exciting initiatives. Vicky visits farms in 15 regions throughout Northern Greece, from Ioannina to Orestiada and down to Karditsa. Each region has about eight farmers whose farms she visits two to three times per month. She examines each farmer\u2019s animals and gives them advice about reproduction, nutrition, and disease in order to help them enhance their products. She also works with them to set individual goals. \u201cThe social dynamics of every group are different,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Vicky also works with food scientists, butchers, cheese makers, and chefs to develop new products from goat milk. \u201cGreece ranks the first in goat production, but we don\u2019t have a unique goat cheese,\u201d she said. In collaboration with Efi Koutsomitropoulou at Creta Farms\u2019 new research and development initiative New Milk and Professor Thomas Moschakis from the Department of Food Science at Aristotle University, she produced a new drink made from fermented goat-milk yogurt which is available in plain, strawberry, and fig flavors. Next year, Vicky aims to produce a spreadable cheese from goat milk, and the following year, a hard yellow goat milk cheese.<\/p>\n
In addition, Vicky is working with the Hellenic Agricultural Organization DIMITRA (ELGO DIMITRA) to research the feasibility of producing heavyweight lambs. Lambs in Greece are usually slaughtered for Easter feasts at 12 kilos, while heavyweight lambs are slaughtered at 18-20 kilos. \u201cAlthough Greece ranks third in sheep production in Europe, we import much of our meat from New Zealand and Australia,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is an opportunity here, but farmers don\u2019t know it. By encouraging farmers to shift to heavyweight lamb production, we can reduce our dependence on imports from other countries.\u201d Vicky is running a number of experiments with ELGO DIMITRA to compare the shorthorn cattle with indigenous breeds from Florina and Chios and a number of imported breeds. \u201cWe are performing sensory analyses, measuring the distribution of fat, the differences in the meats. We are also monitoring the cost of raising the animals based on age and weight,\u201d Vicky said. \u201cIf farmers raise the animals for a longer period of time, they must know that they will profit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cGreece ranks the first in goat production, but we don\u2019t have a unique goat cheese\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-success-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n