As of: February 12, 2024, 12:00 a.m
By: Dieter Roettig
Comments
Press
Split
It's not just dairy farmer Johannes Weber who is happy about the medal from the Weilheim breeding association - his cows are also very curious.
© Dieter Roettig
A special plaque has recently adorned the Weber family's Aussiedlerhof between Pähl and Fischen.
It documents it as a “top dairy farm”.
Pähl - The special award was presented by the Weilheim breeding associations at their general meeting in the Raistinger Gasthof “Zur Post”.
An accolade for farmer Johannes Weber (31), who is the only one to have achieved this enormous average in the association's entire sphere of activity.
It currently includes 1,136 member companies in the districts of Weilheim-Schongau, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Starnberg, Fürstenfeldbruck and parts of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen.
The Weber family farm is one of the oldest in Pähl and has been documented since 1700.
In 2017, the Webers moved their dairy cattle to a state-of-the-art resettler farm between Pähl and Fischen above the bypass road.
The construction was supported by the European Agricultural Fund EAFRD and co-financed by the Free State of Bavaria as part of the rural development program.
Animal husbandry even exceeds common organic standards
When planning the freestall, the main focus was on the well-being of the around 60 animals: dry cattle relax in large straw pens, many a cow enjoys the rain in the uncovered exercise yard - and the deep litter boxes for resting and sleeping are also popular with the cattle .
The cows move completely freely throughout the freestall.
This means that animal husbandry here even exceeds the usual organic standards.
Milking is done with an automatic milking robot that is in use 24/7.
The cows themselves decide when and how often they are milked. So “such a stupid cow” doesn’t apply to them at all.
You know exactly when it's time.
By the way, at a milk vending machine you can draw freshly milked raw milk directly from the milk tank around the clock.
Thermomix for cows
30 percent of the livestock are brown Swiss, but the majority are black and white Fleckvieh or German Holsteins.
This is the most common dairy breed in Germany with an annual production of around 10,000 liters of milk per cow.
This official average shows the performance of the Webers at over 13,000 liters.
By the way, their top cow is called “Cordula” and loves the special feed mix based on their own 50 hectares of grassland.
Johannes Weber, who mainly manages the business with the help of his father Johann and a part-time employee, mixes the feed himself with a “Thermomix for cows”: including grass silage, corn, straw and meal.
With its self-cleaning system, the Weber-Hof also impressively shows what modern technology can achieve in a stable.
Almost all processes are computer controlled and monitored.