Biological agricolture

To cultivate and to produce following the principles of biological agriculture mean to cultivate and to produce in the respect of the environment, of the producer and of the consumer.
The method of biological production prohibits the use of products of synthesis for the cultivation, it is based on the rotation between the cultivations to improve the fertility of the land, and on practical of conduction that aims to re-establish an equilibrium between cultivated and non cultivated fields; here hedges and rows of trees are replanted and they become zones of repopulation for birds and small wild animals, and useful bugs to the cultivated plants.
The cascina Giaggioli has undertaken with decision this road in 1997, and now is certifyd biological from BIOS (http://www.certbios.it).

The rotation between the cultivations has allowed the passage from the monocultivation of rice and maize practised until then to the plurality of currently present cultivations in the farm, such as Carnaroli rice, Maranello maize for polenta, corn, barley, proteic pea, loietto for hay and grass that cover approximately a fifth of the farm surface.

Every year the cultivations are succeeded in the various plots, without repeating, in this way we take better advantages of the fertility of the land, the structure is improved and the infesting grass is fought. These represent, in our cultivations, one of the main problems that are found in biological agriculture. The fight, being forbidden chemical weed killers, is carried out with agronomic practice such as  the false seeding and the mechanical work.

The false seeding is a practice through which it is attempted to eliminate the greatest amount of malerbe as possible before the true seeding is carried out.
The mechanical work consist in activities carried out to cultivations in existence with some particular equipment that physically eliminate the malerbe.

The correct seeding time and a correct land working, with respect to the cultivation, are essential elements both for the good result of the harvest and for a corrected management of the infesting grasses.

The water to irrigate the fields comes from the Naviglio Grande and through the canale Ticinello, still rich of frogs and fish, it arrives to our farm and to all the surrounding agricultural district.
Through a complex and capillary net of channels, drains and water catchments, hydraulic engineering masterpiece, the water succeeds to irrigate almost all the cultivated fields, transforming this zone one of the most valuable agricultural areas existing in the world, thanks also to the nature of the ground, fertile from the job of generations of farmer  and agriculturists followed in the course of the centuries, and that with attention and cure we try to maintain still now.

The manuring of the cultivations comes only from organic or mineral products; the main ones are manure and the slurry produced from the breeding, there are used moreover directly organic or mineral manure respectful of the biological method spread on the land or on the present cultivations.
The manure mature at least six months before used on the fields and the cultivations.