Description

Practice abstract

The land that gives rise to Carne D’Erva is located in the Lezírias of Vila Franca de Xira, where 100 ha are leased. Of these, 25 ha are permanent pasture and the remaining area is used to grow species such as clover for forages, to feed the farm’s animals, and to sell to other farms. Each year, they have a mean of 50 animals, but the numbers vary throughout the seasons, during winter time they choose to have only 25 animals, but they are always buying and selling. They only buy adult cows, that for some reason can’t be used for breeding and therefore lose interest in other farms. The reason for this is to keep the time between purchase and slaughter short and because they believe the quality of the meat is higher in these animals. What sets this farm apart is the fact that the animals are 100% fed on fresh grass, without any fertilizers, with rare exceptions where the farmer needs to offer stored forage to the animals, for example in periods of extreme drought. The animals are fed on the farm and sent for meat processing for later marketing by the company itself, where they sell the products through e-commerce directly to the consumer, thus becoming a farm-to-fork production. One of the manager’s next plans is to implement a video surveillance system throughout the farm with two specific objectives: to control the pastures to effectively assess which plots need more or less irrigation, thus optimizing water consumption; and to be able to track the animals, resulting in a direct and constant assessment of their welfare, while at the same time making a live stream on the company’s website that allows consumers to see the animals live, proving their welfare and the way they are produced, which can encourage the purchase of their 100% organic products and improve their e-commerce.  

Context profil