Marketing meat in more than one price category
Diverse know-how for livestock farmers at the DLG Winter Conference 2025
Will the market really reward me if I convert my barn to a higher husbandry level? German pig farmers have been asking themselves this question ever since food retailers in the country introduced the labeling of husbandry levels on meat packaging. The DLG Winter Conference 2025 in Münster in February reflected on this topic together with practitioners who shared their experiences. The agenda also included lessons learned for the future handling of animal diseases from the ASF outbreak in the federal state of Hesse. In addition, the impulse forum “Horse feeding with sense and understanding” offered an overview of successful ration design in horse husbandry.
The audience was captivated by the three livestock farmers who presented their assessment of the market opportunities in Germany behind the husbandry level labeling in the impulse forum “1, 2, 3, or 4: How much transformation does the market allow?” at the DLG Winter Conference.
Christian Dohrmann, for example, a pig farmer from Lower Saxony, wants to switch back from husbandry level 2 to 1 for economic reasons, as he sources piglets from Denmark and therefore does not meet the “5xD” requirement, meaning that the entire production an breeding process has to take place in Germany . The livestock farmer described himself as “dispassionate” towards husbandry systems. In any case, lucrative marketing should be secured before the conversion, he advised his colleagues.
Conversion to higher husbandry systems if the market is receptive
As soon as the food retail trade gets serious about only offering fresh meat and processed products of husbandry levels 3 and 4 and the market proves to be sufficiently receptive and stable, it will convert its stables, Dohrmann said. Current studies show that 40 percent of pig meat in Germany is marketed via food retailers and only a third of this is sold to customers as fresh meat over the counter, said consultant Dr. Veronika Drexl, classifying the market relevance.
Dohrmann's colleague Dr. Jochen Meyer has been keeping pigs for 30 years and converted his barn to elevated animal welfare housing level 4 a few years ago. The pig farmer emphasized that his main motivation for this step was economic efficiency, as he wanted to achieve greater profitability with this production method. “Why are there so many people, including farmers, who think that meat can only be sold in one price category?” Meyer asked the participants at the DLG Winter Conference.
Lots of positive feedback for outdoor area
Meyer explained that his barn used to be a “classic barn” with 1,200 fattening places and a fully slatted floor. One of the reasons he switched to housing level 4 was to “try out a new concept.” Another motivation was also “animal welfare” and, linked to this, “my enjoyment at work”, Meyer continued.
Specifically, he turned the former barn with 1,200 places into two large groups with 400 animals each in housing type 4 - with an outdoor area. The outdoor area was visible from the street, Meyer explained. This has resulted in “a lot of positive feedback” from the population, he emphasized.
The sole proprietor loves numbers and data and has a soft spot for digital technology in the barn. In order to simplify and objectify curly-tail inspection, Meyer and his daughter have installed a camera system in the sorting sluice. With a data set of 96,000 images, the AI-based system recognizes the curly tails of the pigs with an accuracy of 96.6 percent, allowing good conclusions to be drawn about their integrity. In order to receive the attractive curly tail premium in the federal state of Lower Saxony, 70 percent of the tails must be intact.
Dr. Meyer's advice to his professional colleagues: Everyone must find out for themselves what they “feel like doing” in farm management - and what suits their own abilities and individual requirements.
Decision for barn conversion also a question of location
According to consultant Dr. Veronika Drexl, housing systems play a subordinate role in piglet production. Piglet producers are more concerned with the issue of “intact curly tails”, and there are various regional support programs for this in Germany. She inspired the audience with her comments on the different attitudes of people as to whether or not they would consider converting their barns. Older farm managers, for example, are often less inclined to convert. On the other hand, farmers who “dare” to do so are often young and have a “passion for pigs”. However, Drexl also emphasized that the structural conditions and location must be right for a positive decision. An inner-city location or on the edge of bodies of water tend to be obstacles when it comes to planning permission, due to German regulation.
Drexl identified changing social needs as well as economic and technological developments as important “transformers” in the pig farming sector in Germany. The consultant emphasized that the food retail sector is an important transformer in the development towards higher animal welfare standards in husbandry systems. The aim of the food retail sector is to convert its fresh meat range to elevated animal welfare standard 3 by 2030. “If consumers are really no longer given a choice from then on, the food retail sector is the biggest transformer we have,” Drexl emphasized. However, only 40 percent of the pork marketed in Germany flows into the food retail sector, Drexl added. And of this 40 percent, only one third is sold as fresh meat - the other two thirds are processed products. For the remaining pork supply, especially for export or out-of-home consumption, farming standard 3 is not yet a priority, Drexl continued, and the classical conventional farming standards 1 and 2 are still considered favorable alternatives.
More flexibility in reducing the minimum radius of ASF restricted zones
Meanwhile, piglet producer Susanne Ries and pig farmer Hartwig Jourdan, whose farms are located in southern Hesse, shared their experiences and insights from the events surrounding African swine fever (ASF) in Hesse with the participants of the impulse forum “ASF in Hesse: Experiences and lessons for practice” at the DLG Winter Conference.
Ries and Jourdan identified the following requirements in dealing with ASF: More flexibility in the justified shortening of the period of validity of an ASF restricted zone and more flexibility in the justified reduction of the minimum radius of an ASF restricted zone. In addition, from a professional point of view, consideration should be given to the possibility of marketing fresh meat from the protection and surveillance zone. The two practitioners also criticized the fact that it is currently not legally possible to “free-test” meat at the slaughterhouse.
For the first time at this year's DLG Winter Conference, the DLG Horse Working Group and the DLG Feed & Feeding Working Group organized an impulse forum at the DLG Winter Conference. “We have around 1.3 million horses in Germany and 200,000 horse farms,” said Dr. Christiane Müller, member of the DLG Horse Working Group and Chairwoman of the Animal Welfare Committee, opening the impulse forum “Horse feeding with sense and understanding”. Here the audience learned when and how animal keepers and owners must ensure that the animal is kept, fed and exercised in a species-appropriate manner. “It is best to set out the responsibilities in a contract,” Müller recommended when tasks such as feeding are transferred from the animal keeper to the animal owner.
Determining the “present condition” of the horse
Dr. Jochen Krieg, Chamber of Agriculture of North Rhine-Westphalia and member of the DLG Working Group on Feed & Feeding, explained what a good ration design looks like. “First define the current condition of your horse: How old and how big is it? What stress is it exposed to? Is it over- or undersupplied? Then deal with the question of which feed should be fed and when.” It is important to make sure to feed a sufficient quantity and quality of structurally effective coarse feed that the animals can occupy themselves with for a long time. Thomas Lammerding, manager of the Lammerding boarding stable in Reken (North Rhine-Westphalia) and former participant in the DLG/FN Horse Manager seminar, emphasized the importance of professional harvesting and correct storage of the feed, especially to ensure hygienic feed. “We not only store our hay on pallets, but also place pallets between the bales so that the hay can dry properly and there is good air circulation.”
Text: Daphne Huber, Stefanie Pionke, Jana Sondermann / DLG-Newsroom