Animal Husbandry

The Animal Husbandry division develops strategies for improving livestock husbandry on organic holdings. For all livestock species, the combination of site-appropriate breeding, ethologically sound husbandry, efficient hygiene measures and preventive feeding strategies are of major importance. Focal areas are the development of measures to control parasites as well as breeding strategies that are in conformity with the organic ethos. Our strategies tackle issues at different levels: With dairy cows the focus is on sustainable breeding strategies for organic farming. In poultry keeping, housing systems and management are optimized with a view to ethological criteria as well as parasite burdens. In sheep and rabbits, parasite problems are addressed by way of bioactive feedstuffs.