Institute of

OF Organic Farming

Meat production

Development of sustainable production methods In organic agriculture, meat production is least-developed. The most important problem is the high nutrient requirement of monogastric livestock like pigs and poultry concerning economic performance and marketable carcass and meat qualities. Projects mainly focus on the examination of suitable genotypes and diets of 100 % organic origin (genotype-environment-interaction) concern

ing product and process qualities to improve the production systems and the profile of organic agriculture. Our practical research helps to develop environment- and animal-friendly, low-loss and profitable production systems which guarantee marketable carcass and meat qualities based on genotypes and diets of 100% organic origin.

Ongoing projects

Common vetch: variety testing for agronomy and feeding of fattening pigs

In the planned project, we aim to identify varieties of common vetch (Vicia sativa L.), which can be cultivated under changing climatic conditions and used as valuable feedstuff for monogastric animals.

Feeding silage from early-cut red clover to fattening pigs

Forage legumes like red clover are an important part of organic crop rotations, but are rarely used as feed for pigs. This study sets out to determine the potential of ensiled red clover as feed for fattening pigs.

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.

Finished projects

Intake of grass-clover when sows are kept on pasture

Roughage like ensiled or fresh grass-clover is offered to gestating sows to improve their health and offer employment. We document the amounts of fresh grass-clover that sows consume on pasture to enable an inclusion of energy from grass-clover in diet formulation.

Piglet nest

Organic pig husbandry aims at a high animal welfare standard, part of which is a low level of piglet losses. Ensuring that piglets are kept warm after farrowing, and protecting them against being crushed by the sow are measures to improve piglet survival. Both warmth and protection can be achieved by a well designed and frequently used piglet nest.

More iron for healthier piglets

The iron demand of suckling piglets cannot be met from sows´ milk alone, but relies on iron uptake from the environment (e.g. rooting). Because that´s not possible under modern housing conditions, iron must be supplemented.

Alternatives to castration

The acceptance of piglet castration is declining. Therefore, boar fattening could be an alternative. But the problems of boar taint are still not finally resolved.

Group suckling

The above mentioned project is part of a 5 parts joint project (06oe266) which focuses on nutrition, keeping, desinfection and temperature control in the organic piglet production.

XXL-pigs

The above mentioned project is part of a 5 parts joint project (06oe266) which focuses on nutrition, keeping, desinfection and temperature control in the organic piglet production.

Piglet feeding strategies

Organic agriculture is characterised as a low external input system, minimising the use of non farm-own resources. Hence, livestock's nutrient supply should be of predominantly farm-own production and of complete organic origin.

Castration of piglets

Castration without anaesthesia shall be banned in 2018. But the currently approved anaesthetics for pigs are probably suboptimal under organic housing conditions.

Evaluation of organic feedstuffs

Organic farmers should feed the animals with 100 % organic produced feedstuffs in the near future. Not only ruminants, but also monogastric animals – poultry and swine – must be feed with protein from domestic feedstuffs to meet requirements.

Lameness in breeding sows

Sows in conventional husbandry often suffer from diseases in their locomotor systems, leg injuries and lameness. What is the situation on organic farms where pigs have outdoor runs? What risk factors have the most influence here?

Genotype-Environment-Interaction in organic pig fattening

A main factor for profiling poor developed organic pork production is the choice of the right genotype. Therefore modern and old breeds are tested for genotype-environment-interaction concerning various criteria of performance, carcass, meat and fat quality.

Compensatory growth

For lack of organic feed with a high quality amino acid pattern (protein gap), there is the danger of impaired value creation in organic pig fattening due to low body protein but high body fat synthesis of organic fattening pigs. Against that background the objective of our study was to investigate whether a moderate oversupply of lysine in the final fattening period after a marginal lysine supply in the initial feeding period will result in compensatory protein growth.

Prolonged suckling period

The use of portions of Duroc in fattening pigs is often recommended in organic pork production. It is the aim to investigate the effect of varying percentages of the genotype Duroc in organic fattening pigs on performance, carcass and meat quality.

Duroc percentages

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?

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

Treated common vetch seeds for monogastrics

The protein-rich seeds of common vetches contain valuable nutrients, but also anti-nutritive factors, to which especially chicken and pigs are sensitive to. In this project, we examine if the treatments germination and ensiling, respectively, can reduce these negative effects.

Fattening trial feed structure

Pelleting chicken feed reduces feed losses and improves feed intake, but causes additional expenses. When germinated wheat is fed to broilers in addition to a pelleted or milled feed mixture, it is unclear if the structure of the feed affects feed intake and animal performance.

Colorful chicken

So far, organic chicken farms rely on the same high-performance hybrids as conventional farms. As groundwork for breeding an organic chicken, this project compares six dual purpose genotypes and evaluates their potential for organic agriculture.

Beef from nature reserves

Goal of the on-farm projects was the development and assessent of integration of old endangered dairy cattle breeds and landscape management into milk producing farms.

Kid rearing and fattening

Rearing kids from dairy goats is not easy. How can kids rearing be improved with mother suckling systems in comparison with bucket and automatic feeding systems? The other question is the fattening of kids. Which feeding regime is recommendable for animal welfare, high production performance and last but not least for profitability?

Evaluation of organic feedstuffs

Scroll to top

Institute of

OF Organic Farming

Meat production

Ongoing projects

Common vetch: variety testing for agronomy and feeding of fattening pigs

Feeding silage from early-cut red clover to fattening pigs

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

Finished projects

Intake of grass-clover when sows are kept on pasture

Piglet nest

More iron for healthier piglets

Alternatives to castration

Group suckling

XXL-pigs

Piglet feeding strategies

Castration of piglets

Evaluation of organic feedstuffs

Lameness in breeding sows

Genotype-Environment-Interaction in organic pig fattening

Compensatory growth

Prolonged suckling period

Duroc percentages

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

MIX-ENABLE - Grazing together: cattle and broilers

Treated common vetch seeds for monogastrics

Fattening trial feed structure

Colorful chicken

Beef from nature reserves

Kid rearing and fattening

Evaluation of organic feedstuffs

Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute

Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries