Report

The purpose of our activity was to see and to understand better different types of
farms and livestock.
In the first day we have visited vacaria from So Joo do Campo. There we saw
around 80 caws and their veals (vitelos). There were 2 breeds , one of them was
Holstein-Friesian and the other was Alentejana.
They were raised for milk and they use to produce daily around 33l, being milked
2 times per day, in the morning and in the evening, usually every 12 hours.
Their everyday nutrition consist in 46kg of food; 1kg is hay, 11kg straw and 35kg
of a mixture. The food is scattered next to their place so that they can access it
anytime. The room they were in was around 100/60m and they were restricted on the
sides. The cleaning is maintained with the help of an automatic bar that crosses through
the room. They had two big ventilators that were used only in the summer.
The calves were kept in other room, arranged depending on their gender and
age. They were usually sold to the abattoirs.
The insemination is made manually and is used a long needle that is inserted
into the cows uterus, meantime that the other one is in its rect in order to not ruin the
needle or to hurt the animal. The syringe contain bull sperm and costs between 0-50
each.
The milking process is made in rows. Around 10 cows enter at once in the room
in which their udder is first clean and disinfect and after, the milk is absorbed and stored
straight into a huge tank until it is picked by the transporters and distributed.
In the second day weve visited the animals from Agraria.
First we saw the horses. They lives mainly in open-air. The difference is made
between the pregnant females which are moved separately.
After that we saw the cows. They were from the Marinhoa Cattle and they were
raised for the veals and not for milk so there there wasn't any automatics machines but
they were also living in open space.

Next we went to other side of the domain and we saw sheep raised for milk and
cheese. Close to them were also pigs. The babies were although inside, protected from
the cold and they even had an infrared lamp to keep warm. They were sold after a few
weeks.
Finally we saw rabbits. In a room around 15/10m, kept in cages, there were
around 50 rabbits with their bunnies. Before entering the room we had to clean our
shoes from a sanitary point of view. They are sold for meat after ~2 months, at the age
that they are able to be weaned. Sold alive, their price is much lower (5euros). There I
also discovered that the mothers have the habit to tear out their hair and create kind of
a blanket for their babies which when born, they are around 10-13. It is normal that 1 or
maximum 2 of them to have some medical issue or even die soon after birth and
because of this, they are separated according to their health condition and also sell at
different prices.