Institute of

OF Organic Farming

Animal welfare

Animal welfare and animal-friendly livestock management are central in organic agriculture, which are firmly anchored in the IFOAM Basic Principles of Health and Justice (IFOAM 2014). These principles serve internationally as guidelines for organic agriculture and are also reflected in the production regulations for organic agriculture legally valid in the European Union.

Prevention is crucial to maintain herd health and welfare. In all parts of the environment behavioral and biological needs of the animals has to be taken into account in order reduce stress. On the other hand herd management and hygiene are needed to reduce infection prevalence and not to overstraine the adaptability of farm animals in the farm environment. Therefore the aim of the research is to focus on the development and enhancement of preventive management concepts to enhance animal health and welfare under practical conditions. Furthermore the aim is to focus on the identification and validation of animal based indicators to assess health and welfare of livestock on-farm. Epidemiologic topics such as the analysis of risk factors for certain production diseases are also under study.

Ö-Ko-Tier

Within the framework of organic inspections, various audit systems of the inspection bodies and the organic farming associations are currently applied to monitor animal welfare on farms. These concepts will be reviewed, further developed and standardized with regard to the criteria of validity, reliability and practicability, considering already existing indicator and assessment systems.

Calf rearing with cow contact: natural, healthy and feasible

For some years now, dairy farms have been successfully developing their very own procedures for cow-based rearing. Nevertheless, there are a number of open questions or problems for which no satisfactory solution has yet been found. This is where our practical project comes in:

Ongoing projects

MinimA

Maintaining the therapeutic efficiency of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine requires their strictly demand-oriented use. In our project, we apply this principle to the dry off treatment of dairy cows on farms.

InnoRind - Cattle Innovation Network – sustainable cattle farming in Germany, considering animal welfare, environmental impacts and social acceptance

What does sustainable cattle farming in Germany look like, considering animal welfare, environmental impact and social acceptance? What changes can be implemented in housing and management of calves, beef and dairy cows?? Answers to these questions are to be provided by nine research farms as part of the InnoRind project.

Less antibiotics - higher mastitis risk?

Every use of antibiotics bears the risk for development of antibiotic resistances and to promote resistant bacteria. Thus, the use of such substances has to be questioned. In dairy farming antibiotic dry cow treatment is an important tool to reduce mastitis on herd level. Usually, if an indication exists, all quarters of an udder will be treated with antibiotics disregarding the infection status of the individual quarter. Therefore the question arises, whether it would be possible to minimize the use of antibiotics by quarterspecific treatment without increasing the infection risk of the ...

Calf rearing with cow contact: natural, healthy and feasible

Pasture based fattening of male dairy calves – an option for the future?

Today, immediate separation of cow and calf after parturition is common in dairy farming. However, an alternative is the dam Pasture based fattening of male dairy calves – an option for the future?

Bros on pasture

Wir untersuchen die Gemischt-Beweidung durch Bruderhähne und -kälber auf einer Weidefläche, die durch streifenförmige Pappel-KUPs unterteilt ist. Ziel ist die Bewertung dieser Haltungsform nach ökonomischen und Tierwohlaspekten.

sLowFeedChickIns

The main objective of the project is to sustainably improve the performance of organic husbandry systems for dual-purpose chickens under the aspects of resource-efficient raw material procurement, optimization of feeding and animal welfare.

PPillow - Poultry and Pig Low-input and Organic production systems’ Welfare

Organic and low-input poultry farming has increased in the EU over the last decade for ethical and socio-economic reasons. However, there are still some unresolved issues in these farming systems, particularly in relation to animal health and mortality problems. The acceptance by consumers and practitioners, in particular with regard to the killing of day-old male layer chicks, has clearly declined. Furthermore, European citizens expect guarantees for improved animal welfare, safety and quality of poultry meat and eggs in these systems. Therefore, there is a need to improve animal welfare in ...

Finished projects

MinimA

Animal welfare competence

Development of an individual animal welfare-oriented competence to ensure animal well-being– Concepts of teaching and learning in vocational education and training – Up to now, animal welfare has only been a minor topic in agricultural vocational education. New and innovative concepts of teaching and learning are therefore to be developed, in order to promote a comprehensive animal welfare-oriented competence.

EIP- Animal Welfare-Check

MIX-ENABLE - Grazing together: cattle and broilers

Specialisation increases also in organic farming. Even if there are more than one species on a farm they usually will be managed separately. Partners from seven EU-countries investigate the potential of a higher integration between farm components

Animal welfare in dairy husbandry with a system – from farm self-monitoring to national monitoring

Significant, valid and evidence-based indicators to evaluate animal welfare in livestock husbandry are now available. Lacking is a comprehensive monitoring of automatically documentable animal-related indicators that make animal welfare measurable and comparable. In our project Q-Check, indicators for animal health from existing analyses and documentation systems shall be used.

Pasture based fattening of male dairy calves – an option for the future?

Today, immediate separation of cow and calf after parturition is common in dairy farming. However, an alternative is the dam Pasture based fattening of male dairy calves – an option for the future?

Stable Schools to improve animal health and welfare

Udder diseases and metabolism problems, typical production diseases, also play a great role in organic dairy husbandry. In a pilot study we studied the extent to which Stable Schools are suited as an innovative concept to improve the health situation with consultations in the participating dairy farms. Stable Schools base on mutual learning: problems in the own farm are discussed and solved together with other farmers.

National Animal Welfare Monitoring

The interdisciplinary project "National Animal Welfare Monitoring" aims to develop the basis for reporting on the status quo and the development of animal welfare in livestock farming.

Indicators for a Payment-by-Results Approach for Animal Welfare Measures and Organic Farming

According to Eurobarometer surveys, most consumers desire adequate housing and living circumstances for farm animals. But which indicators are most suitable for the measurement of animal welfare and how can animal welfare policies be implemented in a result-oriented way? This research question is adressed by the Thünen-Insitut of Organic Farming and the Thünen-Institut of Farm Economics.

Establishment of web-based decision trees for parasite prophylaxis through future-oriented pasture management in agricultural practice and consultancy

Pasture husbandry is considered to be particularly animal appropriate and is, according to polls, desired by consumers. However younger animals in particular are often afflicted with infections by gastrointestinal parasites while at pasture. Previously developed decision trees available online could be an aid in future-oriented pasture planning. How do farms perceive the work with this online tool? Can it provide support in pasture management to individual farms? Does it reduce the stress on the animals or does the use of the decision tree lead to less use of anthelmintics? These questions are ...

Decision Trees for Deworming

Control of gastrointestinal worms of grazing ruminants is crucial to animal health and farmer’s economic success. At the same time the smallest possible amount of drugs is to be used.