Shepherds' School: Training Programme

The Shepherds' School was part of the Centro Region Cheese Valorisation Programme and a highly strategic action for the integrated development of both the territory and the sector. Since one of the main problems facing PDO cheese producers was the difficulty of sourcing raw material meeting the qualification requirements, this action emerged as a way of building up milk production capacity for the PDO cheese sector. Working from the need to tackle those difficulties, the Centro Region Cheese Valorisation Programme set out to promote (sheep) livestock production on four main pillars: (1) introducing quality-based milk payment systems; (2) paying shepherds for ecosystem services; (3) securing access to land so holdings can be sized efficiently; and (4) training and qualifying shepherds.