I am Alessia BERRA from the ZORE farm in the village of Taipana (Udine) in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in the north-east of Italy, very close to the
border with Slovenia.
I have been a breeder of Alpine goats or Alps Chamois goat, as this beautiful breed of goat is called in Italy, for more than 10 years and now I have about 80 milking goats and all my milk is directly transformed into farm cheeses (a wide variety of products: renneted cheese such as «formaggella», soft cheese such as «stracchino», lactic cheese more or less matured, yoghurt, kefir and fresh and smoked «ricotta») sold in a short circuit (70% direct sale in the farm, the rest in shops and specialised restaurants within a radius of 50 km).
My farm is at an altitude of 800 metres so my choice to be more autonomous in forage is to graze my goats as long as possible during the favourable season (May-October), another strength of my farm is to be autonomous for permanent meadow hay, on the other hand I buy alfalfa hay which is produced in the plain of my region and the concentrates (commercial, corn and soya) that I choose are restricted to a maximum of 1.0 kg/goat/day.
I bought my first batch of 80 kids in 2010 and since then I didn’t want to introduce animals from outside, at the beginning the choice to do AI was for sanitary reasons and for this reason I joined the CGC (Caprine Genetic Contract) Program since its beginning in 2012. But I immediately became passionate about genetics as a lever for improving economic returns, particularly for cheese yield and type, as well as for grazing and milking performance.
Now with the hindsight of 10 years of membership in the CGC Program, despite a variable success at AI (from very good to borderline average), I can say that the new generations from AI (daughters and granddaughters) are very satisfactory in size, udder morphology and with rates unimaginable a few years ago. Here is some data to evaluate the evolution of performance in 10 years of genetic commitment.
Finally, I am very motivated and the driving force behind the «Franco-Italian Caprine Alliance» project, because I think that there is strength in numbers and that it would be great if any Italian breeder could become a «creator» by taking part in the collective selection scheme that I hope will soon be European.
