On the occasion of the twenty-first edition of the National Sheep Market, held at the Hotel Puerta de Segovia (Segovia, Spain) on the 24th of May 2024, Roberto Ruiz, researcher at NEIKER-BRTA, took part to talk about the sustainability of sheep, the main challenges and opportunities, as well as to present the objectives and results of the LIFE GREEN SHEEP project. Thus, it was made clear that the current context of Climate Change demands urgent actions in all sectors to reduce the level of emissions, including sheep farming. The great variability between sheep flocks in both their carbon footprint and the relative importance of different sources was shown. The project aims to incorporate changes in management that contribute to mitigate, but also to improve the sustainability of the systems (technical-economic, social and environmental), and some examples of innovative practices were presented.
This event is a professional meeting of the sheep sector in Spain, organised every year by the Spanish Association of Markets and Markets at Origin, AELMO, and was attended by around 300 people representing all the links in the value chain of the sheep sector (farmers, veterinaries, food industry, retailers, etc.). The conference also addressed other important issues for the sector, such as the influence of feed on economic and global sustainability in lamb fattening production or the healthiness of lamb meat; a presentation on the effects of lamb meat consumption on health, with a particular focus on the lamb of the PGI Ternasco de Aragón, known for its pink meat, and another on the role of the veterinarian and sheep farms in the face of the new regulatory changes. The conference also included a round table to agree on the prices for the different types of sheep marketed (suckling lambs, light or heavy lambs, etc.), which would set the trend for the following weeks.