On 24 September, CONSULAI organized a demonstration session of the Jornadas Técnicas do Montado, bringing together the national network of three European projects at Herdade da Carneira in Borba: Climate Farm Demo, Grazing4AgroEcology and MIXED.

The participants were welcomed by farmer Carlos Mira, a member of the demonstration network for the Climate Farm Demo and Grazing4AgroEcology projects. The session started with an overview of the farm, highlighting its main areas of interest and defining the farm’s objectives. Herdade da Carneira is a diverse agricultural holding, with an important focus on cork oak forests and the breeding of purebred Black Merino sheep. It currently has an average annual production of 250 lambs, with self-production of feed for the entire herd.

The event was joined by the company AgroInsider, which shared its experience with the participants on the subject of carbon credits and markets, an important area for farmers and which was the subject of a previous session of the Technical Days, held last April in Coruche. You can find more information about this previous session here.

The event was supported by Lusosem, which addressed the topic of direct sowing, a practice carried out for the first time by Herdade da Carneira, with the aim of reducing soil tillage. This was followed by a debate focussing on soil health, highlighting the need for treatments and corrections through practices such as liming to increase pH and the addition of organic matter.

The Association of Forestry Producers of the Portalegre District was also present, emphasising the monitoring and phytosanitary control of cork oaks for good cork oak forest management.

The different interventions enriched the demonstration session, which ended with a group exercise in which participants had the opportunity to reflect about climate adaptation and mitigation practices, identifying their benefits and the respective implementation challenges.

We look forward to seeing you at the next session of the Jornadas Técnicas do Montado!