The dairy farmers in the region are doing badly - numerous farms have to close in the face of increasingly fierce price wars.
Thomas Strobl's farm in Rottenbuch also struggled to keep afloat.
According to the Federal Association of German Dairy Farmers (BDM), big politics are in demand.
Only the EU can solve the problem.
District
- Many cows are not in the barn.
Most of them are still outside on the run behind the building, eating grass or enjoying the afternoon sun.
Soon they will be trotting back in to be milked on the machines.
Thomas Strobl senior needs around one and a half hours until all 50 cows are through - just as much time as in the morning.
But the three hours of work are by no means over.
Feeding, mucking out the barn, pulling out manure, doing hard agricultural work, constantly looking after the animals - at the end of the day the 61-year-old doesn't have to worry about falling asleep.
Then he is done.
A 70-hour week is the rule and not an exception for the Rottenbuch farmer
“A 70-hour week is the norm,” he explains.
He, his wife and his son Richard are not allowed to get sick either.
Everything is sewn on edge.
Vacation is a foreign word for the Strobls.
Thomas Strobl loves his job, but the earnings are hardly enough to live on.
He currently gets 34 cents for a liter of milk - far too little to even come close to supporting the family.
His son works as a sideline to earn extra money.
Although he would prefer to be just a farmer, because he really enjoys working on the farm on the outskirts of Rottenbuch.
“As a farmer, you have to be ready 24 hours, day and night,” he says.
If he were to get 50 cents per liter of milk, it would be reasonably possible.
Then you could at least speak of something like cost recovery, says Strobl.
There is a merciless price war on the global milk market
But it doesn't look like that.
Milk is a global export that is exported to all four corners of the world.
The result is a merciless price war and decline, which has already driven many businesses in Bavaria to ruin.
“Many livestock farms operate at their limit in the face of permanent cost shortfalls and recurring crises,” complains Bernhard Heger from the district team of the Federal Association of German Dairy Farmers (BDM).
"You have lost a lot of substance in the past few years and therefore no longer have any reserves for investments, for example for modernizing the stables."
Strobl built a milking system in his high-tech stable in 1994 - for a good 250,000 euros at the time.
Today it would cost three times as much.
It's good that it still works.
“But once it breaks, I wouldn't have the money to buy a new one.
And whether I could take out a loan is questionable. "
The problem is not even the requirements that repeatedly force expensive investments.
Thomas Strobl would like to keep his cattle as species-appropriate as possible and is also not opposed to corresponding requirements.
Groundwater protection, animal welfare discussions, biodiversity, sustainability, regionality and climate goals: none of this falls on deaf ears with him.
He can identify with these directives, "because we only have one planet".
Only: The money for it is missing.
“That cannot be achieved at 34 cents per liter.” The farmers are constantly being confronted with new requirements, but at the same time they are cut off financially.
Appeal to politics
So what can be done to remedy the situation?
Ultimately, according to Heger, it is all about big politics.
The course would have to be set at EU level.
Heger sees the problem in Germany with what he says is “merciless world market policy”.
This leads to the fact that the markets are opened in almost every segment.
This is an advantage for the auto industry, in which Germany ranks first.
But the bill would have to pay the other branches of the economy, which are on weaker feet.
And that includes the dairy industry.
“We bleed to death so that others can earn well.” That shouldn't be.
The products of the agricultural sector served the basic needs of the population.
“That must finally become clear to the politicians.” But is such a move realistic?
Are political bodies like the European Union willing and able to change agricultural policy?
Heger shrugs his shoulders and is disappointed.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has a great influence on EU agricultural policy.
“But I can't really see the will to turn away from the world market orientation, namely to produce more and more cheaply.
We need 50 cents per liter of milk.
Then we can produce food in an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable way ”, says Heger.
BY RAFAEL SALA
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