Castilla y León Expands Aid Eligibility for Mountain Milk Collection
Castilla y León has amended its rules for compensating the extra cost of milk collection in mountain areas. The revised scheme no longer excludes farms according to their annual output or because they are located within ten kilometres of a dairy facility or the first buyer’s address.
The previous limits were 360,000 litres a year for cow’s milk and 100,000 litres for sheep’s and goat’s milk. Those thresholds have been removed, allowing larger mountain farms to be included in a buyer’s application if they meet the other conditions of the scheme. The change follows objections from agricultural organisations, which argued that higher production does not necessarily remove the additional cost of reaching a farm in difficult terrain.
The distance rule has also been replaced by a points system. Farms between zero and 19 kilometres from the relevant collection point can now be counted and receive 0.25 points per producer. The scale rises to 0.50 points for 20–50 kilometres, one point for 51–100 kilometres and two points for routes exceeding 100 kilometres. The revised approach retains higher scores for longer journeys without automatically excluding nearby farms.
The rules also distinguish between types of buyer. Cooperatives and Agricultural Transformation Companies, known in Spain as SATs, receive three points for each mountain producer whose milk they collect. Other first buyers receive 1.5 points per producer. These scores determine the ranking of applications rather than directly setting the amount paid to an operator. Additional criteria concerning social integration and disability remain in the system.
The support is not paid directly to each farmer. First buyers that collect the milk are the applicants, and the scheme is intended to offset part of the logistical burden associated with maintaining collection routes. Where a producer supplies more than one company, only the buyer that received the larger volume in the year before the call for applications may count that farm, preventing the same holding from generating points in two applications.
The scheme covers cow, sheep and goat milk. The collection challenge is linked to dispersed farms, small loads per stop, longer driving times and difficult access conditions, including steep roads, snow and ice. In such circumstances, the cost per litre can be higher than on routes serving a denser concentration of farms. Milk’s limited storage life makes regular collection necessary for its marketing.
The original rules were adopted through Order AGR/372/2026 on 22 April. The regional administration issued the amendment in Order AGR/1046/2026 on 7 October, and it was published in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León on 15 October 2026. ASAJA Castilla y León said it had submitted objections to the production and distance restrictions that were subsequently removed.
