The cattle breeds you find on the Dehesa San Francisco are mainly "retinta" and "berrenda". They are perfectly adapted to the life on the "Dehesa", so called indigenous breeds.
There are many reasons for animal husbandry with indigenous breeds but the decisive one for us is: for us, cattle are no meat factories to produce steaks, entrecote, etc.
El ganado también tiene derecho a vivir una vida adecuada a sus necesidades. Even farm animals have a right to live a dignified life according to their needs.
In our animal husbandry we try to apply the formula known in economy as "win-win-situation", which means that both partners in a business should be able to achieve benefits.
In our case it would even be a win-win-win-win-situation: the animals should enjoy their life; the natural environment - in our case the "Dehesa" - should improve and the farmer should earn benefits from his work; finally the consumers should obtain a healthy quality product with nutritional and emotional values – exactly what makes a good meat meal.
Cattle, in order to feel well, need space, natural environment, sunlight, and the company of their congeners.
What kind of management system would offer all that? The extensive and organic animal husbandry guarantees all these conditions and protects the rights of animal welfare.
Coming back to the farmer’s job of producing biodiversity, not just meat: the appropriateness of animals for the environment and the way they are bred have an enormous effect on the biodiversity.
What does this bug, eating cattle excrements, have to do with the cows on the Dehesa San Francisco? Quite a lot...
Thanks to the extensive and organic management system with indigenous breeds which are perfectly adapted to the natural conditions on the "Dehesa", we have to apply much less deworming medicine (e.g.: Ivermectin), so that our bug friend can survive and go on doing his job.
The biologist and Director of the "Centro Iberoamericano de la Biodiversidad" (CIBIO), Eduardo Galante and Jorge Lobo from the CSIC describe the important role of this bug in an article in "EFEverde" in 2012 as follows:
...these animals are the waste removers in nature...
Although this species of bugs has never been really investigated, especially in our country, their importance is such that without them, we would have a severe hygiene problem in nature because they play a decisive role fertilizing the soil.
On big open spaces, like the savanna or grazing areas, the soil can only be fertilized by the excrements of herbivores, since there are no leaves from trees; in other words, if these animals do not exist, the grazing comes to an end.
In spite of their importance and the advantages they provide, they are disappearing due to the threat by deworming medicines in livestock breeding, insecticides and the abandonment of rural areas, as Galante assures.
The deworming medicines, such as Ivermectin, get into the excrements of the animals and have a lethal effect on insects including the ones who eat excrements.
You still have doubts about the importance of cattle excrements and how important it is that the cattle lives in free nature, eat natural food and are adapted to the environment?
Maybe the following fotos explain:
