Latvian organic cattle farm invests in eco-friendly machinery

A family farm specialising in high quality beef cattle breeding used Rural Development Programme support to acquire new, cost-saving and more environmentally-friendly machinery.
 

Full Project description EN PDF icon (346.69 KB)
Project summary: 

The Kriksi farm, founded in November 2004, is partly located in the Abava Nature Park in Latvia.
The farm’s main activity is breeding of organic Charolais beef. In 2008, it was awarded the status of breeder of pure Charolais cattle. As the farm keeps expanding, the owner decided to invest in new machinery to allow the farm to become more efficient, reduce its production costs while at the same time protecting the environment.
Investment support from the Latvian Rural Development Programme (RDP) enabled the farm to purchase machinery including a tedder, a front mower, a grass chopper and a trailer.
 

Project results: 

The net turnover of the farm increased by at least 10%, or more than half the amount invested in the project.
The production also increased by 10%.
The project helped cut fuel consumption by reducing the number of trips that were necessary to the fields. This also had a positive effect on the growth of the crops and thus on the quality of the feed base.