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Bavarian farms are in the red: animal welfare and environmental protection make life difficult

2022-04-29T03:05:08.130Z


Bavarian farms are in the red: animal welfare and environmental protection make life difficult Created: 04/29/2022, 04:49 am By: Dominik Goettler Bavaria's farms are struggling. © picture alliance/dpa/Angelika Warmuth Animal welfare, environmental protection, but please affordable: Society demands a lot from farmers. A farmer tells of her everyday problems. Munich – Sabine Müller (name change


Bavarian farms are in the red: animal welfare and environmental protection make life difficult

Created: 04/29/2022, 04:49 am

By: Dominik Goettler

Bavaria's farms are struggling.

© picture alliance/dpa/Angelika Warmuth

Animal welfare, environmental protection, but please affordable: Society demands a lot from farmers.

A farmer tells of her everyday problems.

Munich – Sabine Müller (name changed) stands in the 100-year-old barn of her farm and looks at her calves with a gentle smile.

"The critters are my life," says the 58-year-old.

For this living she works up to 80 hours a week on her farm, as she says.

She hasn't had a day off in 30 years.

"I can live with that." But in the past financial year, she was in the red with her small farm for the first time.

She wrote the balance sheet down on a piece of paper.

Income such as milk money, cattle for slaughter and state subsidies.

Expenditure from food to diesel to the vet.

At the end there is a minus.

And she asks herself: "How can it be that with so much work not even the bare necessities of life are left over?"


In a village in western Upper Bavaria, Müller runs a conventional farm with almost 50 hectares, 30 dairy cows and rearing calves.

She wants to remain anonymous because she says whoever has the damage doesn't need the mockery on top of that.

But she still wants to tell about her situation because she believes that many farmers face similar problems.

Bavaria's farms: Globalization and orientation to the world market cause prices to fluctuate

The fact that smaller farms in particular are coming under economic pressure is not a new development, as Johannes Sauer, Chair of Production and Resource Economics at the Technical University of Munich, explains.

"The general trend is that state funds only flow if certain services are provided, especially in the areas of environmental protection and animal welfare." Increasing globalization and orientation to the world market are causing prices to fluctuate more than before, and food retailers are using their market power full off

And the critical consumer drives farmers to invest more in ecologically sustainable production methods and more animal welfare.

"Of course, the costs go up," says Sauer.

That forces companies to grow – or to specialise.

“Full-time farms in particular have to do their math here.

You have to have a strategy for every investment: Where do I want to go?

And what is my plan B?” There is no general answer to this.

Because every company has its own history.

And different requirements.

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Strict requirements for animal welfare for the farms

Also that of Sabine Müller.

She married late, her husband helps out on the farm, but is a career changer.

The daughter still goes to school.

She is interested in farming, but it is not yet clear whether she will actually take over the farm.

But Sabine Müller would actually have to invest in her business if she wants to set it up for the future.

Again and again the veterinary office warns to retrofit.

"Since the animal welfare scandal in the Allgäu, they have become much stricter," says Müller.

"Actually, I always drove the cows out to pasture in the summer." But because the veterinarians didn't agree with the tethering system, their cows stayed in the barn for the first time last year.

"I could no longer cope with the daily expulsion with these specifications," says Müller.

She knows that this has no future. But a modern barn is expensive.

Müller would have to borrow a lot of money without knowing whether she can even earn it again - with the open question of succession in the neck.

"I don't feed any concentrated feed, I hardly ever spray and use little artificial fertilizer - just as society would like it to be."


Two types of farms in the future: large farms and organic farms

Professor Sauer observes that the investment backlog in companies with an open question of succession is often particularly large.

For the future he sees a development coming in which two types of companies are likely to emerge.

Large farms with a lot of space that rely heavily on the latest technologies and can therefore work efficiently.

"But even a size of 200 hectares will probably not be enough." And then there are farms that he describes as "neo-ecological".

Organic farms that market their products regionally, advertise their ethical production and, thanks to this niche, manage with less space.

In addition, there are the part-time businesses, which are already in the majority in Bavaria - but often do not have to pay attention to every cent because the main income comes from somewhere else.


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Bavaria's farmers must "become more entrepreneurs".

"In every scenario, however, farmers must become even more entrepreneurs," says Sauer.

Orientate yourself more towards the consumer.

“In agriculture there is still too little market thinking.

Agricultural policy is partly to blame for this, it has delayed this development.”


Sabine Müller survived the past year because she still has rental income in addition to farming.

She brought in her savings and sold a few smaller meadows.

She doesn't want to give up.

"I'm far too attached to the animals." She hopes that politicians will not forget companies like hers.

"The only thing that is always seen is: It's organic or it's conventional.

But the intermediate stages are not appreciated.” She hopes that cows are not only bred for maximum performance.

That the veterinary authorities proceed with a sense of proportion.

And that there are also considerations to be made when it comes to tethering.

As much exercise as possible for young animals.

But there are compromises for older cows whose urge to move is no longer as great.

But your main wish is

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-29

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