Valoración racial e autenticación do sistema de produción ecolóxica de leite no Norte de España

Abstract

Organic agriculture is a production system that is growing in the present even that some aspects continue to be not solved so they should be deeper studied. Organic farmers in Northern Spain continue to use the same animals they had in conventional systems (Holstein), even they say they are not satisfied with their production. In studies to analyze breed influence it was observed that Holstein produce more milk yield but lower solid composition, while crosses have better standardized solid production due to higher solid percentages and intermediate milk production. Moreover, crosses are more efficient in reproduction and Holstein in longevity. Holsteins have not serious problems for adaptation to organic systems so an effort should be made to find a rustic strain adapted to those systems, and also to elaborate a genetic merit index for organic systems. Knowing consumers opinion is very important to establish marketing strategies so an inquiry was performed, findings show that the majority of people think that local and environmental friendly products are organic, price continues to be a barrier for organic consumption and mistrust has also some relevance. Is should be considered that consumers have interest in local breed protection in ecotourism so it could be a good option for the protection of least productive breeds in reduced census. Knowing that consumers distrust organic origin of products it was considered interesting to develop a method to differentiate organic system and products to certificate their origin. Differentiation was performed using milk and blood (serum) samples. Chemometric analysis was used to distinguish product samples origin based on mineral composition. The classification model applied to milk samples was able to classify correctly samples in production system with a 5% error, samples incorrectly classified were those ones from lowinput conventional systems, because of similar nutrition to organic farms. For the authentication of organic system blood (serum) was used applying a chemometric analysis based on mineral composition. The recognition pattern yielded a predictive hit rate close up to 90% for both systems (organic and conventional). These results could help producers, consumers and regulatory bodies to verify that organic standards have been followed.