Sustainable Organic and Low-Input Dairying

Solid (Sustainable Organic and Low-Input Dairying) is a project financed by the European Union that runs from 2011 to 2016. The project aims to improve the technical performance and economic competitiveness of organic and low-input dairy systems in Europe, while maximising their potential to deliver environmental goods and to enhance biodiversity.

A total of 25 institutes and organisations in ten different countries are included in the project, which is co-ordinated by the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University, UK. A multidisciplinary team comprising academic and stakeholder (SME) partners from across Europe, encompassing dairy cows and goats, will identify and apply novel strategies at the farm level and throughout the supply chain. Effective knowledge dissemination and exchange activities will target key stakeholder groups ensuring exploitation of outputs at animal, farm, region, sector and European levels.

SOLID has now published their first newsletter. It contains: Farms in Austria – a description; Assessing whole farm sustainability; Cattle and goat breeds adapted to organic and low inputdairy production systems: Facts versus fiction; Novel and underutilized feed resources – potential for use in organic andlow input dairy production; as well as a section for brief news and events. The newsletter is available here.

SOLID