The spring It has been shown generous inThe Pedroches with abundant pastures and the development of crops that are generating fodder and cereals that will fill the pantries of the farms to feed the livestock.
The rain fell in the last days of March, in the middle of Holy Week, a very ideal moment according to farmers and ranchers from Los Pedroches. There were many liters that, in addition to fill reservoirs and recover streams and wellsthey brought the land to life and prepared it for the spring harvest.
Both in the pastures They sprouted naturally and are used for field livestockas the crops that grew abundantly will mean savings in animal feed costs that can be 50 percent compared to last year.
The tractors, combine harvesters and silage machines They have been working hard for weeks, as can be seen when passing through the roads and paths of Los Pedroches.
David Hidalgo collects the fodder balls on his Dos Torres farm.
When the forage is collected, the machinery put a kind of white cover to preserve them by generating these micro silos that abound these days in the region’s farmland, while at the same time traditional alpacas can be made.
David Hidalgo, rancher and farmer fromTwo towers, highlights the “abysmal difference” compared to last year in which there was hardly any grass, “while this year we hope that we can recover from the losses we had.” In their sowing area “in which activity was minimal in 2023, this year there is a lot of work and that is a great joy for us.” Thus, they began chopping forage and continue with the harvest for hay and straw.
David Hidalgo points out that almost the 85 percent of their harvest is sold to Covapalthough they also sell hay to ranchers and for sheep and cows, while at the same time they allocate a part of their farm to self-consumption.
The material is stored in different supports such as micro silos or balls that can hold up to 1,000 kilos of forage.
Ángel Barbero, farmer Hinojosa del Duquesays that “I have never known a year with so much pasture and so much forage like this.”
Sowing oats, fodder and cereal which he sells for animal feed and assures that the work of harvesting the harvest will continue until the first half of July.
He also highlights that the work is intense since «In forages, chopping is applied and also stepped on to compact it. and that the cattle get the most out of it.
In The GuijoJosé Hoyo points out that “the rain we had in spring was very well received for the field” and “we managed to obtain 30,000 kilos of forage per hectare, compared to 2,000, 3,000 or 5,000 kilos last year.”
On their farm they plant fodder, also based on triticale, oats for hay and also rye and they dedicate about 400 hectares and then sell the product to Covap.
José Hoyo explains that the harvest is stored in micro silos, in the so-called chorizos that can measure 75 meters long, in trenches on farms or in piles.
Farmers and ranchers hope that with the products collected from the field they will have animal feed for more than a year or even two.
