On 24-26 October 2023, a team from CIHEAM Zaragoza was in Frick (Switzerland) to join the Second General Assembly of Re-Livestock, an EU-funded project that is facilitating innovations for resilient livestock farming systems.

The aim of this 5-year research project (2022-2027) is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cattle and swine farming systems and increase their capacity to adapt to climate change through innovative practices applied at different scales (animal, herd, farm, sector and region).

CIHEAM Zaragoza is a partner of this project, leading the work on communication, dissemination and capacity building and taking on the tasks of technical and scientific training for maximum transfer of the project's results.

During the meeting held in Switzerland, Andrés Schlageter, from CIHEAM Zaragoza, updated the international consortium on what had been accomplished in the first year and presented the activities for the second year within the project's communication, dissemination and exploitation plan.

The scheduled rounds of discussions resulted in enriching exchanges among the different project's working groups, one of the main objectives of the 3-day General Assembly.

Unique and ambitious project composed of 37 partners

Re-Livestock brings together 37 partners working on a diverse range of dairy, beef and pig production systems throughout Europe. The project pivots on three elements: testing innovations in different areas of expertise (feeding, breeding, farm management); assessing the socioeconomic and environmental impact of those innovations; and engaging with stakeholders to promote adoption.

For David Yáñez (EEZ-CSIC, Spain), coordinator of Re-Livestock, the project's concept and holistic approach set it apart. "Re-Livestock is a unique project because it combines different potential solutions to increase resilience both in the beef, the dairy and the pig sectors. This is quite unique in the sense that normally projects address these things separately. But Re-Livestock is quite ambitious and is combining all those aspects in just one single project".

INNOVATIONS IN ANIMAL NUTRITION

CIHEAM Zaragoza interviewed Re-Livestock coordinator David Yáñez during his participation as a lecturer of an advanced course on alternative and emerging feed and forage resources in the Mediterranean region held at the Institute in Zaragoza (Spain).

In this video interview, the Spanish researcher talks about the use of by-products from the agri-food industry as feed for ruminants, one of his lines of research, and highlights the importance of developing new ingredients that respond to current socio-economic and climatic challenges.