Landsberg district: Aldi's animal welfare as a danger to animal husbandry?

Created: 02/15/2022, 18:30

By: Ulrike Osman

Andreas Hager keeps 135 dairy cows in his barn in Issing.

In an area thickly strewn with straw, five cows are currently awaiting the arrival of their calves.

Hager's building is only 25 years old.

©Osman

Issing – The announcements sound good at first.

Discount giant Aldi wants to do more for animal welfare and gradually only offer meat and fresh milk from farms that meet high standards of husbandry conditions.

The farmers, however, feel overwhelmed and increasingly overwhelmed by requirements and regulations.

It is particularly bitter for those who have just invested in animal welfare and now still have to fear for their future. 

A practical example.

Andreas Hager has a dairy farm with 135 cows in Issing.

The animals are in a pen that is only 25 years old.

The 41-year-old is currently trying to move up to a higher level.

The husbandry system – introduced less than three years ago – is a four-level label that provides information on how farm animals are kept.

Level 1 meets the minimum legal requirements, while Level 4 represents the premium standard.

In the case of dairy cows, this means grazing on at least 120 days a year in addition to the playpen and exercise yard.

Hager wants to advance from level 2 to level 3.

To do this, he had to meet an extensive catalog of specifications.

The most important: The barn must offer an outdoor climate.

To ensure this, the master farmer has partially replaced one of the side walls with special curtains that can be opened and closed at the push of a button.

However, because cows don't like standing in cold drafts either, the curtains remain closed on stormy winter days - Hager only opens them briefly for demonstration purposes for the press photo.

The barn also meets the requirements regarding the space that must be available for each animal.

It offers activity material, a covered outdoor area and a birthing area thickly strewn with straw, where five cows are currently awaiting the arrival of their calves.

So everything should fit.

Hager is therefore relaxed about the certification audit that is supposed to give it the higher quality label.

But Aldi's promise to change attitude caught him off guard too.

From 2030 at the latest, the discounter only wants to sell meat and fresh milk from husbandry levels 3 and 4.

Then Hager's company is no longer at the second highest quality level, but at the lowest.

To get to level 4, further investments would be necessary.

"This dictate has to stop," complains the farmer from Issingen, who is increasingly losing interest in his job.

District farmer chairman Johann Drexl criticizes that the companies are being deprived of planning security.

Smaller farms would be pushed out.

According to Drexl, 40 percent of the dairy farms in the district still have barns with tie-down housing – but this is to be completely abolished.

As early as 2024, Aldi no longer wants to sell milk from husbandry level 1.

For those affected, this means: rebuild or stop.

Apart from the money, there is often a lack of space for new buildings, especially in urban areas.

Or it fails due to the requirements of the building authorities.

The odor emissions from barns with open side walls cannot be expected from nearby residential buildings.

Relocating is often not an option either – due to a lack of money, suitable space, and a lack of sufficient business size.

After Aldi recently advertised its promise of a change of attitude with large-format ads, farmers protested in front of individual branches of the discounter.

In an open letter, the Bavarian President of Farmers, Walter Heidl, demanded that a change in attitude must go hand in hand with an end to low prices.

Instead, "aggressive low-price strategies" are still being experienced in negotiations with retailers, even for animal welfare products.

Heidl also sees a double standard.

Retailers keep "enough back doors open" to be able to claim the highest standards for drinking milk and fresh meat on the one hand, but still have all the freedom they need when it comes to frozen products, processed goods and imported products.

The farmers' association also feels alienated because the plans for interim solutions developed together with the Bavarian Ministry of Agriculture are now practically wasted, as district farmer Rita Behl explains.

The aim was to help tether keepers to achieve adequate animal welfare standards through minor conversions of their stables in combination with exercise or grazing.

Smaller companies could have “continued until retirement”, as Behl says.

"Politicians have to be careful," warns BBV district chairman Johann Drexl.

"If things continue like this, animal husbandry in Germany will collapse."