Dear readers, I wanted to tell you how my wife María José and I ventured to radically change our lives a few years ago. In 1992 we decided to get married and buy the El Campillo farm in order to develop a project that would make us really happy. To do so, we took a risk: we sold our company, a profitable business we had created and which was still in operation (Libra artes gráficas in Madrid) to start our dream, to create and live from a project that went beyond the material aspect. Between 1994 and 1996 we planted more than 30,000 trees in areas of marginal crops, creating large hedges to promote greater biodiversity and we began to study goat breeding and organic farming. We recovered old buildings such as an old wine cellar, now a cheese factory, and the original buildings that today we offer for courses and activities with spacious rooms and 12 rooms where, until 1999, we maintained a rural tourism activity and restaurant. We also travelled to get to know and learn from similar experiences in Spain and France and finally we selected the 5 small farmers in Murcia from whom we bought the first 50 lambs (each one) in the year 2000. In general, a normal day on our farm could be as follows: at dawn the milking starts, in the meantime, someone from the team cleans all the water troughs and feeders and serves fresh hay and cereals to the goats for breakfast when they finish milking, the small goats and the male goats need special care. With the tractor we prepare the alfalfa and oat meal mixes which are replenished daily in the stables. After feeding, our dog "Noro" helps us to take them out on our hills so that they can jump, climb on the highest rocks, exercise, and discover the seasonal flowers and grass shoots until sunset. In the stables they have large fenced parks to avoid any danger while we are not looking after them. Meanwhile, the milk that is milked goes to the production rooms to be turned into our various cheeses and our range of yoghurts, milks and butter. The training, selection and creation of the work team, the construction of the milking parlours, stables, processing facilities, extensions, etc. has taken us 20 years to consolidate the project, initially sized to the available surface area of 250 ha = 1,200 goats and which is now fully completed. This long road has allowed us to learn, understand, make mistakes and act on the essence of the BEEE, which today is proud to call itself an example of integrated management in dairy goat farming from a long and active perspective. But it has not been so easy to get here, I still remember how nervous the goats were when they went in to be milked for the first time, until we learnt that if an adult goat accompanied them they enjoyed the milking and the relief that the goats felt when milk was secreted.

Our farm "El Campillo", located in the northwest mountains of Murcia, in the southeast of Spain, is named after the place where it is located. We are in the green heart of Moratalla, in a privileged environment belonging to the Natural Reserve of Sotos y Bosques de Ribera de Cañaverosa, separated from Calasparra and Moratalla by the river Segura. In this area of the river the otter breeds and there is a wide diversity of wildlife. El Campillo is mainly made up of a typical Mediterranean scrubland that we regenerated 25 years ago by planting more than 30,000 trees of native varieties native to the area (holm oak, pine, mastic, wild olive, etc.) that today provide shelter for large and small birds, rodents, wild boar and wild goats with which we share the space and part of our crops. In the cultivated areas we sow alfalfa meadows, cereals and grain legumes to feed our goats. With hedges, crop rotations and allowing the native flora that the goats graze to seed, we promote a suitable natural environment and encourage as much biodiversity as possible. Our main source of water comes from the "Fuente del Portichuelo", a spring that rises on the farm itself and provides us with drinking water (for us and our goats), for sanitation, cleaning the facilities and production processes, as well as for watering the gardens and crops. In addition, there are two small wells installed with photovoltaic energy to fill the reservoirs in winter that allow us to irrigate the alfalfa meadows in spring and summer by sprinkler irrigation with a pivot. At El Campillo we have been certified in Organic Farming since 2000, and we follow the biodynamic method although we are not currently certified. We use biodynamic preparations to improve the structure and fertility of the soil and we have been organising and participating in biodynamic training activities since 2005, on the farm itself, shared on our website and social networks. The heart of the farm, the one that makes the soil the most important living being on the farm, is our compost. Thanks to its circular management and biodynamic preparations, it becomes a "humus" carrier and catalyst of life for the microscopic livestock of El Campillo to convert the seed, water and sun into generous harvests for our goats. We are located between two small villages of less than 10.000 inhabitants and 7km from the nearest one, Calasparra, with a tradition of organic rice cultivation with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) since 1980, being the first product with organic guarantee in Spain. We promote employment in our area. We are currently a team of 12 people, 6 men and 6 women. Some of them have been with us for more than 20 years, and others joined as the project grew to its current/optimal size (6 goats ha/10,000m²). There are two more trainees and replacements who will be joining in 2022. In addition to improving the salary fixed in our agreement, BEEE maintains a participatory system for the organisation of tasks, family reconciliation, breaks, travel expenses and above all in the creation of a responsible work environment, and a positive and proactive attitude oriented towards the common good that is the aim of BEEE's policy and that we all share. As livestock farming is a DAILY job, the production teams also rotate the milking and herd care tasks to ensure a fair and equal workload, particularly at weekends and on public holidays, ensuring an equal distribution of all tasks and a truly exemplary team atmosphere.