Nowadays, there is a growing trend towards sustainable food production. One such way is hay breeding, which means animals do not eat fermented stern. In addition to making this breeding more sustainable, the products are better quality. Therefore, they can be sold at a higher price, an excellent opportunity for farms with higher production costs. These include mainly mountain farms. As part of the paper, we prepared a conversion plan for the Gabrovšek farm to convert to hay breeding. At the same time, we determined the essential criteria for such a decision. These criteria were used below to design the model. With the help of the model, any farm can determine whether it has a greater or lesser potential for conversion to hay breeding. The model was used on 17 farms in the Žiri M Sora cooperative area. The results show that 47% of farms are suitable for conversion, 35% of farms are moderately suitable, and 18% of farms are less suitable. None of the participating farms was categorized as unsuitable for conversion. Using the data from the model, we assessed whether the cooperative could provide an adequate amount of milk to establish a hay line at the selected dairy. The results show that the cooperative cannot provide a sufficient amount of milk (4.5 million litres per year) with the current annual quantities of milk. We have found that hay breeding has many advantages such as; better product quality, higher purchase price and consequently, the existence of farms in mountain areas and preservation of biodiversity. However, we must also be aware of all the shortcomings and dangers if the farm is unsuitable for such breeding
|