Dairy farmers in the district of Erding are criticizing the new fertilizer ordinance and see their animals as endangered.
Hörgersberg - "Every farmer must be allowed to take individual measures to reduce nitrates on his fields." This is one of the results of the presentation by organic farmer Jens Keim from the interest group (IG) healthy liquid manure.
He spoke on Monday evening at the general meeting of the Federal Association of German Dairy Farmers (BDM), district association Erding, in the Gasthaus Obermeier.
Around 40 farmers came to Hörgersberg.
At the meeting, Mathias Lohmeier from Dorfen was also confirmed as BDM district chairman for a further three years.
In an impassioned plea, farmer Keim from Feuchtwangen pointed out "that manure is not just manure, as our Minister of Agriculture Michaela Kaniber likes to believe".
The problem: From 2025 onwards, according to the current Fertilizer Ordinance, farmers will be obliged to spread liquid manure in strips on grassland, on meadows with important animal feed.
On the other hand, the dairy farmers are resisting because they see the health of their animals at risk from contamination in the liquid manure.
Now, according to Keim, politicians should be persuaded to withdraw this liquid manure application near the ground.
"We are in a constructive dialogue with politicians, including with the EU, because we are all in the same boat," he said.
Keim pleads for alternatives and, above all, for a generally valid measurement method to determine a concrete reference value for ammonia – “which obviously pushes CO2 emissions upwards”.
“The Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture is also investigating this problem.
But she uses different criteria.” As one disgruntled farmer put it, “She only does trials, the results of which are already given.”
Jens Keim received support from farmer Ingrid Bauer from the district of Rottal-Inn.
She has been scientifically involved with liquid manure for many years and even has her own refrigerator with liquid manure samples at home.
She showed how many different colors this sometimes controversial liquid can have as an animal excretion product.
"Every manure is different, its consistency depends largely on how we care for it."
This statement raised questions for many dairy farmers, so the expert gave tips: "Good manure can only be achieved with good feed for the animals." But hygiene in the barn is also important - as is the storage of this liquid.
“If you look into most pits, it quickly becomes clear that the deeper you go, the more thick they become.
Regular stirring of the mass could really make a difference here,” said Bauer.
Again and again the farmer turns out with her red suitcase, a mini laboratory, to investigate the emission potential of ammonia.
She is convinced that good processing of liquid manure can also improve its flow rate.
Basically, like Keim, she supports the thesis "that we should completely rethink the development of our agricultural areas".
Incidentally, she offers farmers to examine the liquid manure for a fee.
District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer, himself a farmer, was also impressed by the more than two-hour presentations.
He notes that the approximately 470 dairy farms in the district of Erding, which produce around 8,400 kilograms of milk every day, "work at the cutting edge".
After all, there is a lot behind their commitment, "because only a cow that is well cared for and fed also gives good milk," he emphasized.
The BDM district team:
Chairman: Mathias Lohmeier (Dorfen), deputies: Hans Altmann (Pastetten), Konrad Brenninger, Hans Eicher, Bernhard Lanzinger, Korbinian Taubenthaler, Florian Wegmann (all Dorfen), Markus Haunolder (St. Wolfgang), Mathias Anzinger (Hohenpolding) and Thomas Zollner (Eitting).