– by E. Sossidou (ELGO-DIMITRA)
Dimitrios Noulas is a farmer located in a village at the base of Mount Olympus.
© all pictures ELGO-DIMITRA
He owns a flock of 280 dairy sheep and a separate herd of 80 dairy goats. He manages his farm using a semi-intensive farming system; his animals have access to pasture from March to June.
Dimitrios employs innovative management techniques on his farm. These practices include monthly volumetric measurements to record milk yield, as well as the evaluation of fat, protein and urea content in individual milk samples twice per year. He also uses a specialized software called Sheeping.co to record data such as lambing/kidding dates, vaccination protocols, mating groups, ultrasound pregnancy diagnosis results, etc. Furthermore, he has implemented artificial rearing of lambs and kids on his farm. He mainly has one kidding period for his goats, which takes place in February annually. His future goal is to increase the size of his flock and develop extended lactation in a group of high-yielding goats, to better deal with reproduction management and distribution of milk throughout the year. Dimitrios has actively participated in the activities within the TechCare project as one of the Greek goat farmers to undertake in the framework of large-scale studies. A meteorological station for measuring relative humidity, temperature and microclimate conditions was established in his farm. He was trained to use the THIcare app, designed by UAB (Universitat Autònoma Barcelona), in order to check and evaluate weather conditions, microclimate and air quality in his farm. Moreover, he has been trained to assess the health status, behaviour, and welfare of the animals and fulfil the relevant recording sheets from the project on a daily basis.
