During the 7th Steering Comittee, the LIFE Green Sheep team had the chance to discover a typical cheese farm from the Basque Country. Iker is a young breeder (22 years-old) and cheese maker, who continues the activity from his parents. His sheep system relies on grazing around the farm in spring but also upon the communal mountain pastures of Aralar, the natural park where he also makes cheese during summer. The lambings start in October and the lambs are sold mainly for Chrismas. All his cheese production is certified within the PDO Idiazabal, and the production transformed while at the mountain pastures is specially differentiated as “mountain cheese”. Iker decided to join the LIFE Green Sheep project to increase efficiency. He’s advised by the cooperative Lurginza. Ttwo main actions were identified: to improve the effiency of the concentrates used by changing the formula and to improve genetics through the breeding scheme of the Latxa sheep. The pastures of the farm and communal pastures used are sequestrating carbon which compensate around 40% of his carbon footprint.
