The last call for aid from the Junta de Castilla y León for incorporation into the agricultural sector has received 958 applications from young people, 33% more than the average of the last five yearsas reported today by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, María González Corral, during the visit to a modern sheep farm in Morales del Vino, Zamora, an example of generational change with the incorporation of three young people who are the seventh family generation in the business.
The applications presented reflect, as stated by the counselor, the interest of young people in agriculture and livestock, which is also added the 28% increase in the number of students enrolled in the eight agricultural vocational training centers of the Board, with 761 registrations. “From the Government of Castilla y León we defend that entrepreneurship in the agri-food sector is a clear option for the future, which is why we are committed to supporting young people who are committed to an essential sector for society from rural areas,” he indicated.
Of the 958 files of young people registered, 27% women, the projects linked to arable crops (401), beef cattle (232), mixed crop and livestock initiatives (71) or the sheep sector (62) stand out. In this call, which It has an endowment of 100 million, Aid for the modernization of farms also appears, with 1,422 applications received, and aid for environmental objectives, with 233 requests.
Thus, in this legislature, the 2022 call allowed 609 young people to be incorporated, with 33.4 million in public aid, and in the 2024 call there were 673, with 42.8 million. The 958 applications received this year now begin their administrative processing “and all those young people who meet the requirements will access the aid, up to 100,000 euros with an advance payment of 60%, since young people have priority in the call,” explained González Corral.
Exemplary farm
The counselor has highlighted the example of generational change represented by the farm formed by the young Paulino Vicente Hernández, Sergio Vicente Ribera and Pablo Vicente Llamas who have taken over the family baton and now make up the seventh generation dedicated to the care and management of sheep. “They are young people who have been trained for this profession and who are committed to a great family legacy,” González Corral has pointed out.
The new facilities, with the support of the previous modernization call, include a milking parlor designed to guarantee maximum control over milk quality and production, as well as two parallel warehouses with central aisles that facilitate the mechanized feeding of the cattle and the daily handling of the animals. The farm has a census of more than 2,500 Castilian sheep and has outdoor meadows for grazing. The farm is also part of the IGP Lechazo de Castilla y León.
At the end of the eighties the family business took the leap to make artisanal cheeses under the Vicente Pastor brand. Maintaining the family tradition, the cheese factory produces about 70,000 kilos of cured cheese per year, one hundred percent from sheep, made with pressed raw milk paste and natural moldy rind from 300,000 liters of milk from its sheep.?
The production phase is completely artisanal, with manual processes in the filling, pressing, salting, refining, curing and brushing of each piece. Regarding the marketing of the production, it is mainly distributed in the national market, in gourmet shops and restaurants, 7% is exported to various countries, both inside and outside Europe, and the rest is sold in the cheese factory itself.
The sheep, strategic
Finally, the counselor highlighted during the visit that the sheep sector will continue to be a priority with different support initiatives, such as the upcoming preliminary market consultation of the ARISTECH project, a Public Procurement of Innovation initiative aimed at identifying ideas that allow the development an innovative, automated milking system adapted to the dairy sheep sector.?
This proposal, arising from meetings with the sector in the AKIS CyL network, is part of the ambitious Sheep and Goat Plan promoted by the Government of Castilla y León in order to modernize and strengthen these strategic sectors for the Community’s agricultural and livestock economy. The plan includes actions aimed at improving competitiveness, sustainability and the incorporation of new technologies on farms. Castilla y León is the main producer of sheep’s milk in Spain, with 52.7% of the national total, and leader in cheese production, responsible for one in three cheeses produced in the country.
