The Flanning Yak Armada

Created: 04/16/2022, 12:00 p.m

A sizeable herd of yaks lives at the Kaiserhof in Flanning.

© Peter Gebel

The Kaisers run a very special organic farm in Flanning – including a kindergarten.

Flanning

– Being able to live from your farm as a full-time farmer with a family, with a focus on organic quality and the highest possible level of animal welfare: Is that even possible?

Josef Kaiser and his wife Maria have achieved this goal at the Kaiserhof in Flanning (Bockhorn municipality) with a lot of idealism and creativity.

We visited the company, which also offers a natural kindergarten.

Many yak cattle cavort there, among other things.

When Josef Kaiser took over his parents' farm in 2016, it was farming with conventional bull fattening with around 60 animals and arable farming.

The decision to switch to organic had been made years before that, as he explains.

"I inherited good foundations from my father, but the soil structure then changed for the better by leaving out chemicals and artificial fertilizers," explains the 40-year-old farmer, who also has training as a carpenter and blacksmith.

Since the takeover, the farm has been a member of the Demeter association and can market the grain to partners in the organic association.

Naked oats are mainly grown for the Donath mill, but spelled, rye, flax and buckwheat are also grown.

“Our goal was a full-time business that the family could live on.

This required several pillars,” says Maria Kaiser.

A lot was tried out, such as a summer on a Swiss alpine pasture with the then four and two-year-old children Valentin and Rosa, to gain experience with a cheese dairy.

"It was great work for a short time, but not ideal for us because it would also have required high investments," reports the farmer.

By chance he met Alfons Kohl from the district of Mühldorf, who has been breeding yaks there for more than 20 years.

The whole family was immediately drawn to the shaggy grunts from the Himalayas, so in October 2017 the first yaks moved into Flanning.

In the meantime, the originally ten cows with breeding bull Fritzi have grown into a sizeable herd of 44 yaks that graze relaxed in Flanning.

For the Kaisers, keeping yaks was an investment in the future, as the animals are only ready for slaughter after about five years.

The expenses for the hay for feeding, the construction of an open pen or the veterinarian have not been offset by any income for years.

But the first yaks are to be slaughtered next winter.

Josef Kaiser already has experience in the meat business through keeping 15 Simmental cattle, which he runs parallel to the yaks.

An animal-worthy exit is important to him, as Kaiser emphasizes.

With the approval of the veterinary office, the animals may be killed directly on the farm by a butcher with a bolt shot.

Further processing takes place at the butcher Wiest in Eitting, which has organic approval - "a great cooperation", as Josef Kaiser praises.

Breeding bull Fritzi has grown particularly fond of Josef Kaiser.

He will not end up in the cooking pot.

© Peter Gebel

He got to know the direct shooting on the pasture during a longer stay in Australia.

There he worked on several farms and realized that killing on site relieves the animals of the stress of transport and the slaughterhouse.

A prerequisite for wanting to tackle breeding at all, says the organic farmer, who often does not find it easy to say goodbye to his animal friends.

He is particularly fond of his first breeding bull, Fritzi, who is no longer active in the breeding program to avoid inbreeding, but will still not end up in the pot.

In-depth conversations with the children Valentin (15) and Rosa (13) are also due in the family when an animal dies, as Maria Kaiser reports.

“Meat is a valuable food that should be valued.

That's why we don't eat meat that often," says the teacher.

The 44-year-old also works at the Kaiserhof.

She has been running the nature kindergarten "Die Hofzwerge" since 2016.

A group of 20 children, mainly from the community of Bockhorn, are cared for there.

A lot is played outdoors, for indoor activities there is a log cabin built by Josef Kaiser.

The so-called farm round, where the numerous animals are visited, is popular with the children: In addition to the 44 yaks, there are 15 bulls, 15 chickens, two rabbits, two cats, five horses and the farm dog Mona.

Josef and Maria Kaiser, here with their dog Mona, also run a kindergarten on their farm – the natural kindergarten “Die Hofzwerge” has existed since 2016.

© Peter Gebel

Of course, the children are also welcome to help feed the chickens or muck out the rabbits.

The head of the kindergarten is supported by two nannies, a housekeeper and a FÖJ (Voluntary Ecological Year) graduate.

Josef Kaiser is also fully involved as chairman of the association Die Hofzwerge.

"I enjoy it when things are moving on the farm," he says.

With a little distance, his parents, Lissi and Bepp Kaiser, also enjoy the turbulent events.

They live in the discharge house, which their son built from straw bales based on the Canadian model.

There is heart and soul in everything: "We were very idealistic at the beginning, that was necessary, otherwise we might not have done it," admits Josef Kaiser.

Domestic yaks are much smaller than their wild Himalayan relatives

He and his wife have now gained a lot of experience, especially with the yaks.

The domestic yaks are much smaller than their wild relatives from the Himalayas, but also more compatible.

They are fully grown when they are eight years old.

Their meat is low in cholesterol and fat, making it healthier than regular beef.

Of course, this “delicacy” has its price, since the animals have to be fed three years longer before they are slaughtered.

Josef Kaiser wants to market the meat in the same way as his Fleckvieh bulls, namely directly, "so that the animals are fully utilized", as he says.

Interested parties can be put on a list in advance and will be informed by Kaiser before slaughtering.

So far, customers have mainly been private customers, but the man from Flanning is also happy to add restaurants to his customer list.

If the kilo price for organic beef is 16 euros in a solidarity mixed pack, yak meat costs 30 euros per kilo.

The fact that the usually rather sluggish yaks also have temperament becomes apparent when the herd is allowed to graze for the first time in spring.

The heavy grunting oxen (cows weigh up to 350 kg, bulls up to 800 kg) jump around exuberantly, gallop wildly and let their joy run wild.

The largest group is the so-called family group with 14 stock cows including calves and the young white yak bull Nanuk, which means polar bear in the Inuit language.

The group stays together for years, the calves leave the group at the age of ten months.

The male calves migrate to the "male group" and are either slaughtered at the age of five or sold on as breeding bulls.

The female calves move into the "girls' group" in which the former breeding bull Fritzi - now castrated - acts as a minder.

Breeding animals from the girls' group are also for sale.

See the Kaisers and their yaks on TV

Bavarian television also visited the Kaisers in Flanning.

Her episode can be seen in the "Hofgeschichten" series on Monday, April 25, from 8:15 p.m. in the third channel and is already available online in the BR media library.

Information about the farm is also available on the website www.dakaiserhof.de.

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Gerda & Peter Gebel