The mood among farmers is and remains not very optimistic.
This became clear once again at the well-attended annual general meeting of the Erding dairy cooperative in the Rauch inn in Grucking.
There were also new elections.
Grucking – Although the milk price is going in the right direction and is approaching the 50 cent mark, this is still not enough given the significantly faster increase in operating costs on the farms.
The deputy chairman of the supervisory board, Bartholomäus Pfanzelt, made this clear: “We have increased operating costs by 100 percent.” Things cannot go on like this.
As recently as 2009, dairy farmers demanded European measures to reduce milk quantities at a demonstration in front of the agricultural office.
Today, milk is becoming scarce because, from the point of view of the farmers, after harassment and humiliation, also from politics, unsatisfactory prices and excessive bureaucracy, the number of dairy farmers in Germany has fallen the most in Europe.
"We document ourselves to death," said Chairwoman Eva Brielmair.
The cooperative has 137 milk suppliers.
They delivered 2.5 million kilos of milk.
The total number of cooperative members is 385. The cooperative has generated a surplus of almost 73,000 euros, and the members receive a dividend of four percent.
The decline in the companies seems to have slowed down a bit, nobody has stopped this year.
And now the milk is getting scarce, because of the exploding costs, the farmers are delivering less.
The dairies, like hunters, with whom the cooperative works, pay more, and retailers sometimes have to drastically increase prices.
Mineral fertilizers from Ukraine fall out, as does soybean meal, for which the price has more than doubled.
After all, the war brought one thing: The appreciation of agriculture is partly back.
The animal welfare campaigns have become quieter.
"When something becomes scarce, people are closer to food than to bees," said Brielmair.
Mayor Max Gotz, Deputy District Administrator Franz Hofstetter and Mayor Hans Wiesmaier also feared in their greetings that this could change again if conditions normalized.
But nothing is normal.
Brielmair: "We have to talk about food security again." And then she turned it up: "There is no rule that prescribes how many square meters a child must have in the apartment." But this rule does exist for dairy cattle.
"The relation is missing a bit."
Milchwerk Jäger from Haag was represented by Managing Director Hermann Jäger, who had to listen to a lot about the milk price, but also made it clear that more was not possible at the moment.
Interesting: In Germany, the contracts with the retail trade are longer-term than in other European countries.
In the course of the elections, the dairy cooperative made some new appointments to the board of directors and the supervisory board.
2nd Chairman Johann Adlberger from Salmannskirchen resigned from the Board of Directors at his own request.
Brielmair emphasized his merits.
In 1996 he was elected to the Supervisory Board and from 2004 he was Vice President of the Supervisory Board.
In 2016 he became Vice President of the cooperative.
Josef Angermaier follows Adlberger.
He was previously on the board of directors.
Franz Adlberger, son of Johann Adlberger, is a new member of the supervisory board.
The Supervisory Board members Konrad Kratzel and the 2nd Chairman of the Supervisory Board Pfanzelt were re-elected.
All votes were unanimous.
Incidentally, it was not about the position of the chairman of the supervisory board, Josef Eicher.
How the Supervisory Board will be constituted in the future is still open, according to Brielmair, that will be decided at the next meeting.
