Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Programme 2021 - 2027 Interreg VI-B North West Europe

Date of latest update: 2026-08-04

Description

Description (EN):

Small scale farming plays a key role in employment and land use in rural areas of North-West Europe (NWE) and yet faces several challenges: economic (low farm incomes, market volatility, etc.), environmental (biodiversity decline, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, climate stresses, etc.), and societal (e.g. perceptions of animal welfare). Consequently, in some of these regions, up to 50% of farmers do not have successors when they retire. This is particularly the case for small and medium sized livestock farms with many of these farms subsequently integrated into larger-scale farm systems. There is an opportunity for livestock farmers to use dairy calves (i.e. calves born from dairy cows) and to add value to these calves by growing them to mature live weights. This opportunity is greatly enhanced if these calves are reared at pasture in ‘grass-based systems’ – such systems are considered desirable as they reduce competition between human food and animal feed, increase soil carbon storage, improve water quality and create local and high-quality food. The objective of this project is to support the resilience of rural territories in NWE and the livelihoods of family farms by developing grass-based dairy calf systems. Such dairy calf systems are at different stages of development throughout NWE, and so transnational cooperation will help adapt production to territorial specificities. The project is built on farmer-groups and experimental farms to co-design enhanced grass-based dairy-calf systems. In addition, multi-actor groups including farmers, advisers, co-operatives and public bodies will define territorial plans for resilient and sustainable dairy calf supply chains. The transnational approach permits the involvement of a large number of partners according to their expertise. The diversity of these partners, and their knowledge of the soil and climatic conditions which prevail in NWE, will ensure a wide and coordinated response.

Actual Achievements (EN):

Teagasc convened and chaired a Steering Committee meeting on 11/03/2025, involving all partners. This meeting was held in Lille during the Interreg NWE seminar. Partners who attended the Interreg seminar joined the meeting in-person while the remaining partners joined virtually. Teagasc also organized Technical Committee meeting on 13/05/2025 (virtual). Teagasc will recruit a Project Manager to manage day-to-day aspects of the project and to lead the Technical Committee. Partners have worked closely in this period to: - consolidate the project description according the comments from Interreg NWE - propose an organisation of the project partnership (frequency of meeting, agenda of the first period collective meetings) The Swiss partner in the Better-Calf project, Agroscope obtained financial support from six cantons (Aargau, Bern, Fribourg, Jura, Lucerne and Vaud), which enabled it to obtain equivalent financial support from the Swiss Confederation (Federal Office for Spatial Development, ARE). From January to March: approaches were made to each canton to obtain funding certificates. There were also discussions with two other Agroscope units regarding their scientific involvement in the project and the funds they will be able to benefit from. From May to June contracts were drawn up between the partner cantons and Agroscope. This included finalisation of the funding procedure in the form of an official agreement between the ARE and Agroscope defining the funding arrangements. Some partners met with their financial controllers; for example, CA Bretagne attended a videoconference with their financial controller to clarify the requirements for certifying our expenses. Likewise, Teagasc communicated with their financial controller on similar issues. The Better-Calf project was represented at the Interreg NWE Annual Event on 16 December 2025 in Luxembourg. Teagasc as Lead Partner delivered a presentation (project ‘pitch’) at this event. The presentation and some images from the event are uploaded on the Report Annexes section. The presentation delivered had the following dimensions: ; firstly the 'problem' the project is addressing was captured in an overview of grassland farming in NWE and the challenges ensuing for farmers on these landscapes. The context was framed within the broader societal challenges of climate change, land use optimization and sustainable food systems. The second part of the presentation focussed on the 'how'; in other words, how will we set out to address the challenges raised. The complementarity of the project partnership featured strongly in this regard. The final part was the expected outcomes - not only the immediate objectives, but the planned longer-lasting impacts of the project. CRA-W highlighted the Better-Calf project at the Libramont agricultural fair, at Batisse agricultural fair, at the "salon professionnel de l'autonomie fourragère", in several articles in specialised press ("le sillon Belge") and at an event "journée croisement" with conference from CRA-W, Élévéo and INRAe. Teagasc convened and chaired Technical Committee meetings on 15/09/2025 (via Teams), 17/11/2025 (via Teams) and 17/12/2025 (at CONVIS in Ettelbrück following the Interreg NWE Annual Event in December 2025) involving all partners. A photo of the in-person meeting is uploaded on the Report Annexes section. All partners contributed to these meetings. Teagasc have attempted to recruit a Project Manager to manage day-to-day aspects of the project and to lead the Technical Committee. This person will also be responsible for technical tasks in Work Package 1 and for supporting activities in Work Packages 2 and 3. Interviews were held on 28/07/25 and on 19/12/25. On both occasions no candidate was deemed suitable. This competition will be run again in spring 2026. Elevéo recruited Dr. Emilie Henrotte in July to lead R&D follow up activities and contribute to coordination with project partners for the implementation of the objectives defined under the WPs. Agroscrope (Switzerland) reached an agreement with ARE (Federal Office for Territorial Development) who provide 50% of the funding, specifying activities, deadlines, financial terms, and reporting requirements.

Project outputs: New dairy calf systems tested for its durability on research and innovation farms and through modelling(EN)
Optimised and resilient dairy-calf systems for the variability of territories existing in NWE(EN)
Training for future farmers on dairy-calf production systems(EN)
Jointly designed commercialisation strategy for dairy calf production(EN) Website: http://better-calf.nweurope.eu

Thematic information

Agriculture and fisheries and forestry Knowledge and technology transfer

Priority: (VI-B_NWE_4) Improving territorial resilience in NWE through innovative and smart transformation

Priority specific objective: RSO1.1. Developing and enhancing research and innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies

Priority policy objective (Interreg specific objective): PO1 A more competitive and smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation and regional ICT connectivity

Type of intervention: 012 Research and innovation activities in public research centres, higher education and centres of competence including networking (industrial research, experimental development, feasibility studies)

Partners (10)

Lead Partner: Teagasc – Agriculture and Food Development Authority

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 999466952

Partner’s ID if not PIC: 0650202O

Department: Grange

Address: Oak Park, R93XE12 Carlow, Ireland

Department address: -, C15 PW93 Dunsany, Co. Meath, Ireland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Sectoral agency

Website: http://www.teagasc.ie

Total budget: EUR 1 314 800.75

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 788 880.45

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 525 920.30

CEVINOR

Name: CEVINOR

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 873244829

Partner’s ID if not PIC: FR47312382336 | Siret: 31238233600021

Address: Route de Cartignies, 59440 Haut Lieu, France

Legal status: private

Organisation type: SME

Website: https://www.cevinor.fr/

Total budget: EUR 9 310.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 5 586.00

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 3 724.00

Landwirtschaftskammer Niedersachsen

Name: Landwirtschaftskammer Niedersachsen

Department: Department of Grassland and Forage Production

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 950934360

Partner’s ID if not PIC: DE245610284

Address: Mars-la-Tour-Straße, 26121 Oldenburg, Germany

Department address: Mars-la-Tour-Straße, 26121 Oldenburg, Germany

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Sectoral agency

Website: http://www.lwk-niedersachsen.de

Total budget: EUR 149 171.43

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 89 502.85

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 59 668.58

Eilyps

Name: Eilyps

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 887485108

Partner’s ID if not PIC: FR37777749177

Address: Boulevard Nominoë, 35740 Pacé, France

Legal status: private

Organisation type: SME

Website: https://www.eilyps.fr/

Total budget: EUR 62 930.48

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 37 758.28

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 25 172.20

GBER schemes / de minimis: GBER Article 20

Chambre d'Agriculture de Bretagne

Name: Chambre d'Agriculture de Bretagne

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 921164963

Partner’s ID if not PIC: FR73130031495

Address: Rue Maurice Le Lannou, 35042 Rennes, France

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Sectoral agency

Website (not verified): http://www.chambres-agriculture-bretagne.com

Total budget: EUR 64 806.48

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 38 883.88

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 25 922.60

Elevéo asbl

Name: Elevéo asbl

Department: Innovation

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 934314089

Partner’s ID if not PIC: BE0479153274

Address: Rue des Champs Elysées, 5590 Ciney, Belgium

Department address: Rue des Champs Elysées, 5590 Ciney, Belgium

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Infrastructure and (public) service provider

Website: http://www.awenet.be

Total budget: EUR 356 847.43

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 214 108.45

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 142 738.98

CONVIS S.C.

Name: CONVIS S.C.

Department: Advisory department

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 887426035

Partner’s ID if not PIC: LU20976581

Address: ZAC, 9085 Ettelbruck, Luxembourg

Department address: ZAC, 9085 Ettelbruck, Luxembourg

Legal status: public

Organisation type: SME

Website: http://www.convis.lu

Total budget: EUR 358 543.81

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 215 126.28

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 143 417.53

Agroscope Posieux

Name: Agroscope Posieux

Department: Animal Production Systems and Animal Health / Ruminant Nutrition and Emissions

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 998365711

Partner’s ID if not PIC: CHE-116.066.471

Address: Tioleyre, 1725 Posieux, Switzerland

Department address: Tioleyre, 1725 Posieux, Switzerland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: http://www.agroscope.admin.ch

Total budget: EUR 302 946.00

Partner contribution: EUR 302 946.00

Centre wallon de Recherches Agronomiques

Name: Centre wallon de Recherches Agronomiques

Department: Sustainability, Systems and Prospectives / Faming systems

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 999514967

Partner’s ID if not PIC: BE0262172984

Address: Rue de Liroux, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium

Department address: Rue du Serpont, 6800 Libramont, Belgium

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Regional public authority

Website: http://www.cra.wallonie.be

Total budget: EUR 880 609.35

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 528 365.61

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 352 243.74

Institut de l'Elevage

Name: Institut de l'Elevage

Department: Departement production and products

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 997218395

Partner’s ID if not PIC: FR0T302984158

Address: Rue de Bercy, 75595 PARIS CEDEX 12, France

Department address: La touche es Bouviers, 56430 Mauron, France

Legal status: private

Organisation type: Sectoral agency

Website: http://www.idele.fr

Total budget: EUR 787 027.81

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 472 216.68

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 314 811.13

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

CEVINOR

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

Chamber of Agriculture of Lower Saxony

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

Eilyps

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

Agricultural chamber of Brittany

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

Elevéo

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

CONVIS S.C.

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

Agroscope Posieux

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

Walloon Agricultural Research Centre

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

French Livestock Institute

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Partners and Projects info

Teagasc – Agriculture and Food Development Authority

Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Project acronym: Better-Calf

Project ID: NWE0400669

Project start date: 2025-01-01

Project end date: 2028-12-31

Project status: ongoing

Relevant linked projects:

LIFE Beef Carbon (EN) | The LIFE BEEF CARBON project aims to reduce the beef carbon footprint by 15% over 10 years in four major and contrasting European countries - Ireland, France, Italy and Spain. The project promotes innovative livestock farming systems and associated practices to ensure the technical, economic, environmental and social sustainability of beef farms thus improving interactions between climate change and livestock production. This involves the development of evaluation tools and decision support systems, to carry out an assessment of GHG emissions on a large number of farms, to inform farmers and advisors and to develop action plans for the production of a low beef carbon footprint. The partners plan to establish a common beef carbon framework composed of innovative practices aimed at reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon sequestration
The initiative involves a number of the partners on this present Better-Calf proposal being led by the Institut de l’Élevage (IDELE) and including Teagasc.
A key outcome of this project was to develop a common framework for GHG emissions modelling across a number of regions – this framework will be adopted in this present project, Better Calf, to permit a consistent GHG modelling approach. (EN), BovINE (EN) | BovINE (Beef Innovation Network Europe) was established across 10 member states that focused solely on the needs of the 255,000 farms which constitute the EU bovine meat sector. BovINE tackled the urgent sustainability challenges faced by beef producers by bringing together beef farmers, farming organisations, advisors and researchers to collectively develop practical innovations that could be implemented on European beef farms.
Coordinated by Teagasc, BovINE was built around a multi-actor approach that required intense cooperation between researchers, advisors, farmers and other relevant actors/players in the beef industry to better facilitate knowledge exchange and acceptance of co-created solutions.
BovINE drew on the reservoir of knowledge that existed at the farm level on the four related key themes of socio-economic resilience, animal health and welfare, production efficiency & quality and environmental sustainability. Using those same themes, the project also identified research findings that still need to be widely adopted at the farm level and examined their feasibility on multiple demonstration beef farms across Europe.
Formed through driving effective cooperation between beef producers and researchers, the BovINE transnational ecosystem stimulated knowledge exchange at an international level which will boost the economic viability and sustainability of the European beef sector.
The findings from BovINE will be a key to the defining the socio-economic resilience and environmental sustainability of dairy-calf farms in Better Calf. In short we will adopt, as far as is appropriate, these definitions in Better-Calf. We will also draw on the experience from BovINE in establishing the multi-actor group proposed in this present project. (EN), Step-up (EN) | STEP UP, a Horizon Europe project running from January 2024 to December 2027, aims to upgrade livestock production in Europe by making it more sustainable. The project will actively engage in evaluating and analysing Innovative Livestock Production Systems (ILPS). By incorporating technology-driven techniques, ILPS will enable more informed and sustainable livestock systems, enhancing efficiency, reducing environmental impact, and improving animal welfare. Insights collected from ILPS assessments will support the improvement of traditional European Livestock Production Systems (ELPS). STEP UP is tackling issues in European livestock farming by giving policymakers clear information on the effects (both positive and negative) of raising animals. Step-Up will analyse the positive and negative impacts and externalities of ELPS through comprehensive science-based knowledge and identify routes to overcome data gaps towards sustainability across both social and environmental contexts. This information will even show the euro value of these effects on the food system and environment. This will help establish better farming methods throughout Europe that are sustainable, reuse resources, and are open about their practices. The positive and negative impacts and externalities of ELPS through comprehensive science-based knowledge will be identified and routes to overcome data gaps towards sustainability across both social and environmental contexts will be outlined. A key outcome will be to improve existing and develop new indicators for assessing the externalities of sustainable European livestock production systems (ELPS), considering relevant value-chain factors.
Step-Up is coordinated by Teagasc; findings from Step-Up in respect of the sustainability indicators proposed will inform the environmental and social indicators assessed in this present project, Better Calf. (EN), SustainBeef (EN) | Sustain-Beef is an Era-Net Susan project aiming to define and evaluate sustainable beef farming systems based on resources non edible by humans. The project proposed a multicriteria evaluation tree to evaluate the systems durability and through a multi-actor approach proposed several weighting scenarios. Current beef systems durability and contribution to food security was evaluated. Several farms economic, environmental and social performances were simulated under current context and scenario of evolution and proposed innovation was discussed and analysed in farmers focus groups.
The project was coordinated by the CRA-W, with partners from Ireland, France, Germany and Italy.
The evaluation tree proposed in the project will be updated in Better Calf to include new and / or improved indicators regarding environmental impact, animal welfare and land use competition. (EN), HoliCow (EN) | HoliCow is an Interreg NWE started in 2023 (end by 2026).
It was born from the observation of a dramatical decrease in the number of small and medium-sized dairy farms in our territories. This decrease is multifactorial. First, access to technologies is complicated for these farms because of the investment and time needed to understand them. A second reason for the decrease of farm number is the detrimental opinion of the general public. Indeed, agri-bashing is very common nowadays, discouraging farmers to continue their activities.
Given the importance of these farms to maintain our landscapes, biodiversity and resilience, HoliCow partners decided to join forces to allow these farms to use affordable tools to improve their resilience and stay in business. In addition, a promotional campaign is planned to strengthen the relationship of the farmers and their local community.
Concretely, HoliCow aims at translating complex and holistic Big Data into usable, affordable and remote decision-making tools for farmers, thereby
counteracting the ongoing abandonment of farms and contributing to animal welfare and climate resilience.
HoliCow is a project dedicated to the dairy cattle, and coordinated by Elevéo. The methodology used in this project is oriented towards practical and usable decision-making tools, born from a multi-actor groups including farmers, advisers and consumers. The same holistic working dynamic will be used in Better Calf, with the additional objective to support the resilience of rural territories in NWE and the livelihoods of family farms by developing grass-based dairy calf systems. (EN), Proscor (EN) | Proscor is an Interreg France – Switzerland project running from January 2024 to August 2026. The aim of the project is to reduce competition in the use of proteins of plant origin between animal feed and human food, as well as competition for arable land.
3 actions are planned in the project:
- characterisation of competition in the use of proteins by dairy and beef cattle systems in the cross-border area between France and Switzerland by applying the methodology already available and published. This methodology only analyses if the feed used for the animals could be edible by humans.
- developing a methodology for studying land use competition. There is currently no scientific consensus on the methodology to describe the competition for land use between animal production (and their feed, either edible by human or not) and crops production directly for human consumption.
- organising groups of farmers to suggest ways to optimise their farming systems regarding the competition for both land use and proteins.
Proscor is jointly coordinated by IDELE and Grangeneuve. Findings of the project will inform durability assessment criteria in the Better Calf project. (EN)

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 4 286 993.54

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 2 390 428.48

Total EU funding (co-financing rate): 55.76%

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 2 390 428.48. Co-financing rate, 55.76%.

Investments, deliverables, policy contributions

(bullets are inserted automatically and may be incorrectly placed)

Deliverables:

Description of dairy-calf production systems in NWE
Description of studies to be conducted on research & innovation farms to improve dairy calf systems
Synthesis of the results of studies on dairy-calf systems
Description of the simulation model of dairy-calf systems
Description of blueprint dairy-calf systems
Evaluation tree for the durability of dairy calf systems
Presentation of information at three experimental farm open days and in published and online media.
Description of the expected composition for focus groups.
Agenda jointly constructed for the meetings of the focus groups
Analyses of the conclusions of the focus groups throughout NWE
Criteria jointly decided for the selection of demonstration farms throughout NWE
Annual technical and economic results and durability evaluation of the pilot farms
A new decision support tool based on the modification of existing or development of a new tool.
Presentation of dairy calf demonstration farms for the visits
Jointly constructed training material for dairy calf production systems
Presentation to training organisation
Description of the survey on consumers preferences and expectation for dairy calf production
Analyses of the survey results on consumers preferences for dairy calf production
Agenda and organisation of the multi-actor groups
Synthesis of the multi-actor groups and analysis of the results
Review of existing or past commercialisation strategies
Description of the conditions for a successful dairy calf value chain
Description of a commercialisation strategy for sustainable dairy calf products
Communication strategy for the Better-Calf project
Presentations of the dairy calf commercialisation strategy for the final online event

Programme Common Output Indicator:

RCO 116 - Jointly developed solutions, Measurement unit:
RCO 084 - Pilot actions developed jointly and implemented in projects, Measurement unit:
RCO 083 - Strategies and action plans jointly developed, Measurement unit:
RCO 085 - Participations in joint training schemes, Measurement unit:

Programme Common Result Indicator:

RCR 081 - Completions of joint training schemes, Measurement unit:
RCR 104 - Solutions taken up or up-scaled by organisations, Measurement unit:
RCR 079 - Joint strategies and action plans taken up by organisations, Measurement unit:

Programme Result Indicator:

PSR 1: Organisations with increased institutional capacity due to their participation in cooperation activities across borders, Measurement unit: Organisations

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2021 - 2027 Interreg VI-B North West Europe

Latest month of project-partner-call data publication

2026-08

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

91 / 91 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

1 005 / 1 006 (99.9%)

Notes on the data

There are discrepancies in this programme's financial data in keep.eu. Namely, in one or more cases, the sum of the project partners' budgets exceeds the total budget of the respective project. Interact is working with the Programme to correct those figures.

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Dairy calf systems for resilience, welfare and sustainability in rural territories

Description

Thematic information

Partners (10)

Partners map

Summary

Investments, deliverables, policy contributions

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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