ROLMIĘS
Mervyn Tucker and Andrzej Szeremeta
Second farm we visited was the Zdziarskis’ family farm of 150 ha: 30 ha meadows and grassland, 120 hectares arable land mainly cereals with legumes. They plant mixes cereals – lupins and cereals - peas, rey is grown on 30 ha and recently they start trials of 2 ha of spelt to investigate if the soil conditions are enough for these crop. The crop rotation is not fix till now. The best one is still being searched with aim to maintain and improve soil fertility. The problem is really bad soils and low rainfall, which makes a lot of trouble to prepare appropriate crop rotation. The climate and rainfall on the farm is similar to that in Biodynamic farm of Education Centre of The R.Steiner Foundation as the farms are located in distance of around 12 kilometres.
The purpose of plant production is animal production. All harvested plant produces are used as feed for animals on the farm. Somebody can be surprised that cereals are not sold for human consumption. They found more appropriate from the market point of view to produce animal products.
The family loves animals and the main production on the farm is cattle and pigs. However we could see the vietnam pigs, rabbits, hens (special breed - green legs hens) and some cattle highlanders. They kept also some sheep 4 years ago, but quit it as they have not seen the profitability of the production.
The farm is one of the main centres of breeding the “Zlotnicka pstra” pig. Farm owners cooperate with scientists from Poznań Agricultural Uniwersity. Farmers have got 5 genetic lines of which two lines are pure, on the farm. It’s the biggest controlled breed group of 54 sows.
The pigs are reproducing on the farm. Part of the piglets is fattening on the farm and many are sold for other farmers.
Pigs on the farm are weaning at 5-6 weeks. For the processing pigs are kept on the farm up to 7-9 months and 100-110 kg with 2,5 cm fat. The meat is very tasty as the breed is fat meat breed. Pigs at beginning up to 30kg are feed by mixes which are based on the own grain with added fish meal, later main feed is cerals mixes. As they very often buy pigs grown from their piglets on other farms, they also provide advisory for farmers whose cooperate with. It’s ensuring the company that bought products are produced in proper way and in apropiate conditions.
They have not too much problem with diseases as they base on the prevention.
Rolmięs was the first organic meat organic processor in Poland. They start processing in 1991 and recently, it developed to quite big company which process 1000 pigs a month and 150 cows a month. They started organic processing in 2000 and 10% of production is organic meat products. The farm is the main source of raw materials. Company is also cooperating with other farmers, which supply both the conventional and organic raw materials. They produce up to 40 organic products. Company produces cooked meat, cold meat, giblets and wide range of sausages. During the organic production they do not add additional water to the products. In the process of production even part of natural water of meat is take off. So the productivity is lower than 100%. 1 kg of product is made from more than 1 kg of meat mass. The meat products are made according the traditional recipes and natural methods of smoking. That’s why consumers are appreciating products from this company.
They market their products on the small shops. It is easier for them to sell by this channel than by supermarkets, where they lost some income due to lower price and lost communication with consumer. In marketing they cooperate also with other small meat processors. As the market of organic food in Poland is still undeveloped, they have problems with selling their organic products in surroundings. They sell their organic products mainly to specialized organic/natural shops in Warsaw (over 35 shops) and to some shops to Poznań and Gdańsk. Distribution of organic products is done by their own. Every week there are delivered to shops. Big advantage of it is the direct communication with shop sellers, so they collect easier the feedback form consumers than in the case of distribution by wholesale or other agents.
ROLMIĘS, P.H.U.P. Rolmięs Sp.J. Maciej Zdziarski, Wincenty Zdziarski
Łabiszyn - Wieś 32 a
89-210 Łabiszyn
e-mail: magdalena_zdziarska@op.pl
phone: 00 48 52 384 45 81
fax: 00 48 52 384 45 81
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financed by
European Commision
Dutch National Postcode Lottery
Ministry of National Education And Sport