SAN PIER DAMIANI DAIRY

Farming

SAN PIER DAMIANI DAIRY

Farming

Our History

1846

Pietro Delsante started business as a mixed economy fund lessee in various locations in the hills around Parma. From father to son the experience and deep understanding of the land led the family towards an increasingly precise specialist production. Milk production for making Parmigiano Reggiano became ever more important as a business activity.

ANNI 60

The Delsante brothers rented the three farms next to Sant'Anna, San Guglielmo and Santa Felicita in order to independently manage their business. In 1967 they became partners in the San Pier Damiani dairy farmers’ cooperative in San Prospero Parmense. They continued with milk production for making Parmigiano Reggiano, alongside the production of wheat and tomatoes for the canning industry.

ANNI 80

The first of the farms was bought and the barns were built that held 180 milk cows. In the following years the barns were extended and flanked by other agricultural buildings, used as storage for equipment and as haylofts. The brothers separated: Vincenzo and Egidio carried on together and Elvezio, Egidio’s son, came in as a partner. The business gave up tomato growing in order to specialise in milk production, increasing the quantity produced annually.

ANNI 2000

The farm increased its production capacity reaching over 300 heads of cattle. Other neighbouring farms were bought reaching around 135 hectares of cultivated land. The San Pier Damiani Dairy began its guided tours. It opened its doors to visitors from all over the world who want to know about the stages of cheese production. In parallel it opened its own sale point.

THE DAIRY

The farm

With careful genetic selection it is possible to have animals that are particularly efficient in processing this cellulose into milk.

 
The breeding of dairy cattle is vital in the food chain. It has been for the history of Emilia in general and for the Delsante family in particular. Cows are herbivores able to transform vegetable molecules (cellulose and starch) that cannot be digested by humans into animal molecules that can then be digested due to their particular digestive tract, the rumen. With careful genetic selection it is possible to have animals that are particularly efficient in processing this cellulose into milk.
Milk is an easily perishable product. Historically that is why its processing into Parmigiano Reggiano has allowed its concentration of nutrients, its preservation and storage in the complete absence of any refrigeration equipment.
 
Producing a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano needs 550 litres of milk. Starting from the very beginning, the process from birth of a calf to production of a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano aged for 12 months, takes at least three years.
The cattle breed that has become best suited to the production stages is the Friesian - the black and white cow - which has also been raised in the Delsante farm for a number of generations. Originally from the Dutch and German region of Friesland the Friesian cow has become the most widespread dairy cow in the world.
 
The Delsante farm on average breeds 150 Friesian cows and around 170 calves that replace the adult cows at the end of their lives. They are bred from very carefully selected bulls, which guarantee natural fertilization for one part of the herd. Each cow can reach a weight of 750 kilos. All the milk produced annually (around 1.2 million litres) is delivered to the San Pier Damiani Dairy to be processed into Parmigiano Reggiano.
THE DAIRY

A2A2 Milk

Milk containing only A2A2 Beta Casein.

A2A2 milk is a type of milk characterized by the prevalent presence of A2A2 Beta Casein, unlike the commonly spread milk which mainly contains the Beta Casein A1A1 variant among the numerous variants of this Beta Casein. Beta Casein A2A2 was originally present in cow's milk but over time - due to the genetic selection processes of dairy cows - it has been replaced.

The studies carried out on this type of milk have identified the different degradation processes of this protein compared to the A1A1 variant that make A2A2 milk more pleasing to the consumer.

The project began in 2016 by carrying out a genetic mapping of the cows in the stable thanks to the technical support of the ARA Piedmont laboratories. On the basis of this mapping it was possible to identify some animals already genetically A2A2 and others that crossed with A2A2 bulls could give offspring. It will take another 4 years to have a stable populated entirely by A2A2 animals, while in the first months of 2020 the production of 100% A2A2 Parmigiano Reggiano wheels began, these wheels have the Certiquality quality certificate, which guarantees the consumer that the cheese is made exclusively with A2A2 milk deriving from A2A2 cows and that throughout the processing the characteristics are preserved.
THE DAIRY

The land

The Delsante farm cultivates 135 hectares of land including permanent meadowland, alfalfa, wheat, barley and maize.

On the Delsante farm the land is cultivated to produce the fodder needed to feed the cattle’s rumination and as a result to produce milk. In this way it keeps the whole production cycle under control and the chain is certified. A large quantity of fodder is needed for animals of these sizes, and it is produced in the spring-summer period but it has to be preserved all of the winter.

The fields are cultivated as follows: fodder wheat 13%, alfalfa 57%, common wheat 23%, stable meadows 3%, ryegrass 3%, corn 4%, panicum 11%, necessary for a rich diet for dairy cattle. These crops are grown in rotation to help maintain the fertility of the land, essentially fertilized with the manure produced by the stable.

The production rules of Parmigiano Reggiano do not allow the preservation of fodder through silage techniques, which means fermentation. The preservation is therefore carried out only through the natural drying out of the essential vegetable matter, which becomes hay. This type of fodder preservation and cattle feeding is the closest to the traditional one.
 

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