Annual Report for Odling i Balans 2004
Odling i Balans operates actives in a number of different areas. The goal of OiB’s activities is to generate knowledge and experience that contribute to developing sustainable production conditions within agriculture. Work is primarily focused on crop production. Much of what is done is focused on practical applications. At the same time, a large emphasis is placed on supporting work that has close connection to research and science. The work of Odling i Balans often constitutes a valuable bridge between theory / basic science and practical conditions. The pilot farms establish an important base for this work.
An important part of the pilot farms work involves documentation of completed as well as planned improvement measures. The Checklist for “Environmental and quality controlled cropping” has, as previously, been revised for this year’s growing season. Another important measure concerns efforts to document and show completed improvements with the help of different Environmental Indicators. There are over 4500 fields documented thus far as a result of documentation over the years 1994-2004. Documentation comprises a number of key indicators that together give a both broad and comprehensive representation of actual conditions.
Important areas of interest include reducing the loss of plant nutrients to coastal watercourses, protection of groundwater from residual substances of chemical pesticides, avoiding damaging subsoil soil compaction and providing a significantly large element of biological diversity in the farming landscape. Work is continually being done within these areas in order to achieve necessary improvements. Large efforts are made to continually improve and develop different key indicators used as a basis for identifying attained improvements; i.e. to show the importance of implemented measures. Fixed environmental goals constitute an important reference point to value the impact of work within different areas of interest. Environmental goals indicate areas where it is important to show the possibility for implementing improvements.
On several pilot farms, primarily in Mälardalen, the harvest for 2004 has been good with exceptional quality and good economic return. Inversely farms in Skåne attained a lower yield than normal. Severe dry conditions set back yields, foremost rye. This shows at the same time how much crop production is effected by outer factors. Under these conditions it is very valuable to follow up conditions on the pilot-farms over a long period of years.
Autumn sowing for the 2005 season—primarily winter wheat and oil seeds—was started in normal time. Prevailing market conditions have resulted in the area sown under autumn oil plants increasing somewhat. The present situation, after a very cold winter, implies risk that a certain area will be excluded as establishment in several cases is troublesome.
The annual general meeting was held in Halland, at Berte Qvarn, at the end of May. 50 people attended. A talk was given at the meeting by Jörgen Sallenhag, agricultural chef at Swedish Farmers and Magnus Jeppson agronomist at Findus on the topic “What room is there for an environmental profile in today’s very competitive crop production.” After the meeting and a superb salmon lunch, a visit was made to Stenastorp a pilot farm representative of Halland with potato growing and pig production as two important production areas. Strawberry growing is a future activity on the farm this year, an example demonstrating how to develop an agricultural enterprise. With a visit to the farm special interest was given to describing biological diversity as well as how that can be a natural part in crop production.
The committee and reference group held a series of 9 meetings during the year.
Pilot farms
Activities are presently carried out on 17 pilot farms. The two most recent farms to join are Bottorp Storgården, situated near Vassmolösa south of Kalmar as well as Egonsborg, north of Trelleborg. The question is often raised for OiB to establish more pilotfarms throughout Sweden. At present the pilot farms are situated in areas where there is a focus on environmental and resource issues. At the same time it is important to promote sustainable cropping in all parts of the country. During 2004 OiB worked together with Swedish Farmers and various other partners in conjunction with agricultural days in different parts of the country. Three open farm demonstrations where conducted during July in the north of Sweden receiving very good attendance.
Several of the farms have carried out considerable renovations and new constructions. Several examples include the rebuilding of the cereal dryer and storage facilities on Badene and Wiggeby as well as a newly built grain storehouse on Sjöstorp. A larger solid fuel plant facility has been built on Stafva, as part of efforts to develop a regeneration energy system. Large-scale utilisation of bio fuel occurs on the following pilot farms, Hacksta, Hidinge, Norups gård, Wiggeby and Stafva. A facility for utilising geothermal energy exists on Egonsborg.
Contributing partners
The organisation has at present 23 financially contributing partners to its activities. They represent different parts in the chain “from soil to table”. Efforts continue to widen the partnership even more, with initiatives to include the farm machinery sector. Several partners represent the manufacturing of raw produce to value added food products. These partners give important information concerning valuing and communicating completed improvements.
During the year several partners have also agreed to earmark funds for a new three-year period, an indication that the work Odling i Balans carries out is of importance for their own activities.
These activities have a prominent information profile. Odling i Balans does not represent any type of marketing logo and should not be considered as a marketing concept.
The information produced is primary used by the contributing partners and shows measures for agriculture that have a sound environmental and quality profile. It is important that changes and improvement measures are balanced with the need for profitability and competitive strength. The link to practical application on the pilot farms is very evident which implies that the suggested measures can be applied on many farms. Odling i Balans aims to implement farm and crop principles regarding documentation and reporting different environmental indicators.
Information
Several new publications have been produced during the year. Each of the pilot farms is documented. The calculated indicators have been utilised in many different circumstances, not least by our contributing partners. Many of the pilot farms carry out informational extension meetings together OiB’s partners. Several comprehensive reports have been produced in conjunction with completed projects. A summary is normally presented on the web site.
The web site www.odlingibalans.com presents a detailed documentation of the organisations activities and results. Included are links to many of the projects contributing partners, many of whom have links to Odling i Balans. Each of the Pilot farms is presented on the web site with information focusing on completed improvements.
Project / development
Several areas have been created for knowledge exchange whereby pilot farms can be contacted and utilized by researchers and students at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SUAS) in connection with special projects and examination essays. Three of the farms have carried out a detailed study concerning the presence of chemical pesticide residues in subsoil drainage water. A final report will be made in autumn 2004.
During the year a comprehensive study was conducted concerning nitrate leaching on different fields on the pilot farms. This work was conducted in close corporation with SUAS, department of water management studies. Working together with the department for soil cultivation, improvements have also been made to the model OiB uses for valuing the risk for damaging subsoil compaction.
January 2005
Vallåkra, Sweden
Lars Törner
MSc Agriculture
Project leader Odling i Balans
Last changed:
21 sep 2005