BF SPA INVESTS IN THE ALFALFA SUPPLY CHAIN

The new industrial facilities of the Ferrara-based company L'Erba del Persico were inaugurated. They will double the production capacity of excellent, certified and traced fodder. Thanks to investments by the BF spa Group, L'Erba del Persico is a candidate to become one of the most important players in the international forage market.


It all started in 1985 when the Bruni brothers took over a social barn to store alfalfa. After ten years, they built the first dehydration plant and, today, the big leap: in fact, once fully operational, the plant will bring production capacity to 800 thousand quintals/year, giving L'Erba del Persico a prominent role in the national agri-food chessboard. We are in the small hamlet of Ripapersico, in the province of Ferrara (Emilia Romagna) where, in recent days, the inauguration of the company's new industrial plant was held, which, thanks to major investments by the BF Group spa, is now equipped with ultra-modern machinery for dehydrating alfalfa.

The participation of the BF Group, in partnership with the Saltarelli-Migiani Group, in the shareholding structure of L'Erba del Persico has made it possible to draw up new strategies and set new industrial objectives, as stated by Federico Vecchioni, Managing Director of BF spa: ‘As shareholders of the company l'Erba del Persico, we are very happy to see this new production plant built and ready to start, the result of investments designed to contribute to strengthening the national agricultural entrepreneurial fabric through a project that sees internationalisation as a natural outlet. BF spa will continue as it has always done, as the leading national operator in agribusiness, to create, together with leading Italian companies such as, in this case, the Saltarelli - Migiani Group, projects that have positive economic and social repercussions in the territories where it operates at a time of great national and international challenges’.

Erba del Persico now has new premises equipped with a technologically advanced plant that meets the highest standards of environmental sustainability and occupational safety. With two integrated processes it will double its current production of 400 quintals/year:

• one line is dedicated to grinding and palletising the fodder to produce a kind of flour that is then compacted for transport;
• the other line is for dehydrating the alfalfa, which is no longer milled, but directly long-fibre.

With the first line, a product delivered by farmers to Erba del Persico is processed regardless of the harvest time; with the second line, on the other hand, a ‘fresh’ product is processed that has just been harvested from the land managed by the Terra del Persico farm (2000 hectares of SAU), thus creating a new product with greater added value. 

The event was attended by Stefano Bonaccini, President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Alessio Mammi, Agriculture Councillor of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Dario Bernardi, Mayor of Portomaggiore, Enzo Gesmundo Secretary General Coldiretti, Paolo Bruni and Tiziano Migiani, President and Managing Director of L'Erba del Persico, Federico Vecchioni, Managing Director BF Spa and Mauro Saltarelli Gruppo Saltarelli - Migiani.

L'Erba del Persico thus becomes one of the most important national players in terms of quality standards and production capacity in the animal feed supply chain, creating a link between alfalfa suppliers and the world's livestock farms, particularly those in Europe, China, Arab countries and South Korea.

Alfalfa is Good for Agriculture.



Alfalfa is a high-value product, essential not only for dairy cow breeders, but also for farmers without cowsheds who have to plan crop rotations.

The agronomic advantages are numerous and very interesting. Thanks to its frequent cutting and its persistence for 4-5 years, it drastically reduces the number of weeds, normally present in a cereal cultivated land with a significant reduction in the use of herbicides, and interrupts the reproductive cycles of some insects harmful to maize. In addition to microbial activity, alfalfa gives soils the right amount of nitrogen in a natural and sustainable way. It also reduces soil surface erosion thanks to a root system that regenerates itself over several years, creating a network in the soil that facilitates water infiltration.

The enhanced activity of L'Erba del Persico therefore also benefits domestic farmers, with particular attention to farms active in hilly areas, who see alfalfa as an opportunity to make crop rotation economically advantageous.