CIRAA is a research centre of Pisa University (Tuscany, central Italy); it operates an area of 1700 ha in a territory included among the river Arno, the towns of Livorno and Pisa and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Its main features are research activity in agriculture and animal breeding, didactic and scientific popularization as well as agricultural production. The milk production chain can well illustrates the multi-functional approach of CIRAA.

Research activity
In the experimental dairy farm of CIRAA different dietary fat sources are compared to improve milk quality in order to determine the effects on the FA profile of milk fat, particularly trans and CLA fatty acids. In the raw milk research activity particular attention is devoted to the study of the microbiological profile.

Didactics and education
CIRAA hosts practical lessons included in the BSc, MSc and PhD courses of the Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Science of Pisa University. The aim is to bring students in direct contact with practical problems of an applied research centre and of everyday activity in commercial farming. The student training concerns also the milking, the animal well-being, the animal feeding and the milk’s collecting, preservation and conveyance. Contact with animals assumes an important educational valence and CIRAA frequently welcomes groups of pre-school, school-children and people with mental and psychiatric disabilities. They have the unique opportunity to meet animals almost unknown in their sphere of life and to connect the milk to its chain of production, as well as to meet the workers of the stable.

Produces, social and environment benefits
Milk production and animal husbandry is under discussion in EU for economical, environmental and social issues. The CIRAA innovative approaches in milk production includes a project of social farming for people with disabilities. Since 2008 CIRAA has started with a 0-kilometers project to sell raw milk, neither pasteurised nor homogenised, through an automatic dispenser located within the stable, few meters far from the milk parlour and the refrigerated tanks. This food chain of production meets the demands of the consumers more and more interested in wholesome foods. A good sanitary status in the whole production process, good manufacturing practices and a special attention paid to the refrigeration chain, permit to obtain a microbiological safe product. About 500 people per day purchase the milk from the “cashmilk” and 15 % of them ask to visit the stable and the milk parlour and are interested in going into the whole production process. The elderly customers especially appreciate the going back to the atmosphere of their childhood; to some of them the cows smell and milk taste have an evocative value. The purchasing of milk in a local scale permits to create a dense net between farmers and consumers obtaining advantages, to preserve the local products and the environment. Many raw milk consumers come from the neighbouring areas and can reach the stable by walk; the seller does not have to bear the costs for milk transport. To sound out the feeling of customers towards a non treated milk in their alimentary habit, they were interviewed by a set of questions. The users of the cashmilk are invited to write their comments on a copy book, the more frequent report being “the milk I used to drink when I was a child”.