Explore the farm

La Barossa is a traditional ‘dehesa’ farm that combines livestock with trees in
Spain’s Extremadura region, where this system of agrosilvopastoral farming
is common.

Spread across 205 hectares, La Barossa is home to around 120 cattle and 150 Iberian pigs. The pigs spend a few months each year feeding on acorns dropped by the farm’s holm oak trees, a quintessential element in the production of Iberian ham. The cattle graze on an annual a rotational system.

“La Barrosa farm is a good example of the traditional system Dehesa, it’s like an agrosilvopastroal system in which holm oak is scattered with pasture. In this farm, the site is 200 hectares, it creates about 100 cattle and approximately 150 Iberian pigs, during the ‘montera’ periods, the period when the acorn falls to the ground, and the animal can fall directly from the ground,”

“AGROMIX is a good idea for involving farmers in thinking or rethinking about what is the future of this kind of project. In this case, AGROMIX is giving support to try new things in our pilot farm. And probably in the future it will be useful to reproduce our successful experiments in other farms.

In its bid to achieve self-sufficiency, the focus group identified viable solutions including the use of solar panels and rotational grazing to improve pasture quality. In a Mediterranean region prone to hot summers, the efficient management of soil and water resources is crucial for the farmland’s functioning. Nature-based solutions for water and soil, including the introduction of fish and improving soil quality, can help against soil degradation and improve the quality of water.