As of: March 18, 2024, 3:00 p.m
By: Johannes Jais
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Bernhard Heger (r.) appealed to farmers at the BDM district meeting in Peißenberg to take responsibility for the market.
© Jais
The farmers of the BDM Weilheim-Schongau neither drove up with tractors nor took to the streets, but came together as normal for the general meeting.
Two central themes dominated the evening: the milk market and “The cow and the climate”.
Peißenberg - “We can struggle as we want if we cannot negotiate with the dairies on an equal footing.” Bernhard Heger shouted this sentence to the 60 men and four women who had gathered at the Gasthof Post in Peißenberg for the meeting.
Heger (57) was district chairman of the “Federal Association of German Dairy Farmers” (BDM) for the Weilheim-Schongau district for 18 years and is now a nationwide board member of the BDM.
The market position is also inadequate for organic farms, the BDM board continued.
If farmers were only paid two cents more per kilogram for hay milk, the production of which requires compliance with more specifications, which requires corresponding investments (keyword drying technology), than for conventionally produced organic milk, then that would be “a mockery”.
In this context, Heger mentioned the Schönegger-Käsealm.
Appeal to farmers
Of course, Heger appealed to farmers: “We have to get rid of the fear of taking responsibility for the market.” This is also important for regional dairy meetings.
The BDM stands for change, emphasized Heger, who himself has a dairy farm near Peißenberg.
“We definitely see opportunities to turn the wheel,” he added, pointing out that the previous funding guidelines for European agricultural policy will expire in December 2027.
Like BDM board member Heger, Jürgen Speer, a farmer in Wildsteig and a teacher at the Weilheim vocational school, made it clear that agriculture does not need subsidies.
She must be able to live from her work and her products.
This is the basis for the companies to develop further.
Speer spoke out against the “animal welfare cent” proposed by Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir.
Speer clearly advocated that services – also in the interests of the environment and landscape conservation – be rewarded and not subsidized.
Instead of basic income protection, he demanded “compensation for expenses”.
Climate protection must be worthwhile.
A good prerequisite for this are “minimal legal requirements and maximum entrepreneurial freedom”.
This sentence particularly appealed to FDP district chairman Klaus Breil, who was present at the meeting, as were MdL Susann Enders (Free Voters) and Martin Adler, spokesman for the Green district association.
60 men and four women came to the general meeting
In his lecture, Speer described that there are 75 million cows in the European Union.
He compared carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture with those from other industries.
Especially in the construction sector, CO2 emissions can be reduced through more use of renewable raw materials such as wood.
Carbon dioxide makes up two thirds of the gases that cause the greenhouse effect, while methane, which is produced during digestion in cattle, accounts for 16 percent.
“Agriculture can protect the climate,” explained Speer.
However, a rethink is necessary.
The circular economy is “not always the best solution”.
The focus is on CO2 binding;
You can make a contribution to this by growing catch crops.
During the discussion, Lucia Egner from Obersöchering asked when the ear punch test for calves, which has been mandatory since 2004, would no longer be necessary.
The livestock is now free of the cattle disease BVD (bovine viral diarrhea).
Jens Lewitzki, who is the chief veterinarian at the district office, announced that this step was “foreseeable”.
However, he could not yet give an exact date for this.