On 11 April, LIFE Maronesa took part in the 10th Bovine Breeding Conference, organised by the International Association of Agricultural Students at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. The most recent member of our team, Marco Fernandes, was responsible for presenting the project to the audience.
The presentation was part of the 4th session of the first day of the conference, which discussed the issue of valuing products from extensive cattle grazing systems and launched the discussion for the last round table of the day, on the impact of global markets, where LIFE Maronesa was demonstrated as a solution validated by the Alvão cattle breeders to reduce the impact of more volatile markets on the availability of food of high nutritional value and with a fundamental role in the balance of the mountain ecosystems in the north of the country. In this sense, the importance of the role of shepherds and livestock farmers as landscape managers was also emphasised, as well as their role as source of empirical knowledge of the territory, used by academics and technicians.
After the usual presentation on the project’s latest activities and questions from the audience, the end was used to discuss the current coexistence relations between the project’s Maronese cattle farmers and the wolf, with an emphasis on demonstrating some of the interactions resulting from the wolf’s presence on the project’s model farm, Casal da Bouça.
