Institute of

Organic Farming

Animal based indicators for a better health and welfare of dairy goats - using Stable Schools as new extension concept

Dairy goat farming is a growing business in Germany since more then one decade.  In the same manner, there is a growing demand on extension for dairy goat farms regarding husbandry and management. Although there is some knowledge present, there is a lack of transer into practical dairy goat farming. That is the starting point for our new initiative Stable Schools for dairy farmers.

Background and Objective

A stable school group consists of 5 farmers each. In our project 7 stable school groups will be established all over Germany. Extension offeicers will provide assistance for the stable groups. They will facilitate the group formation, talks and processes, but they will not act as promoters.

Three times during the projetc period welfare assessments r4egarding health, hosuing and mangament will be conducted on all participating farms. The results will be input for the stable school group extension as well as benchmark criteria for a successful extension process.

Approach

The extension initiative Stable Schools will be wide spread in media and goat farming associations. A maximum of 35 farms will be selected from the total number of applicants. The institute of Organic Farming will conduct welfare assessment on all selected farms to determine state of the art at the beginning of the project. Welfare assessment will be repeated half-time and at the end of the project. The assessment can be used as input for stable school groups and is a measure for the definition of dairy goat welfare.

Links and Downloads

Thünen-Contact


Involved Thünen-Partners


Involved external Thünen-Partners


Funding Body

  • Federal Ministry of Food und Agriculture (BMEL)
    (national, öffentlich)
  • Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE)
    (national, öffentlich)

Duration

9.2014 - 3.2018

More Information

Projekt type:
Project funding number: 13MDT010
Project status: finished

Projekt gestartet - Artikel in Fachzeitschriften

Publications

hits: 10

  1. Sporkmann KH, March S, Brinkmann J, Georg H (2018) Die Stable School : Betriebe beraten Betriebe. Schafzucht(3):34-37
  2. Sporkmann KH, Georg H (2018) Leitfaden zur Bewertung des Tierwohls von Milchziegen. Braunschweig: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, 67 p, Thünen Working Paper 108, DOI:10.3220/WP1541073705000
    pdf document (limited accessibility) 4213 kb
  3. Brinkmann J, March S (2018) Voneinander lernen: Stable Schools : Tierwohl macht Schule ; Empfehlungen aus der Wissenschaft und Erfahrungen aus der Praxis ; Ratgeber. Trenthorst: Thünen-Institut für ökologischen Landbau, 28 p
    pdf document (limited accessibility) 1552 kb
  4. Sporkmann KH, Can E, Vieira A, Battini M, Mattiello S, Stiwell G, Georg H (2017) Results of the application of the AWIN assessment protocol on 27 German dairy goat farms. KTBL Schr 513:195-205
  5. Sporkmann KH, March S, Brinkmann J, Georg H (2017) Status quo der Tierwohlsituation in der deutschen Milchziegenhaltung. In: Wolfrum S, Heuwinkel H, Reents HJ, Hülsbergen KJ (eds) Ökologischen Landbau weiterdenken - Verantwortung übernehmen, Vertrauen stärken : Beiträge zur 14. Wissenschaftstagung Ökologischer Landbau, Freising-Weihenstephan, 7. bis 10. März 2017. Berlin: Köster, pp 430-433
  6. Sporkmann KH, March S, Brinkmann J, Georg H (2017) Welfare assessment on 40 dairy goat farms in Germany. In: Jong IC, Koene P (eds) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level : WAFL 2017 ; Ede, The Netherlands ; September 5-8, 2017. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publ, p 199
  7. Sporkmann KH, March S, Brinkmann J, Georg H (2016) Ergebnisse zu Tierwohl und Tiergesundheit auf deutschen Milchziegenbetrieben. KTBL Schr 511:285-287
  8. Brinkmann J, March S, Sporkmann KH, Georg H (2015) Stable Schools - wo Tierwohl Schule macht. LandInForm(4):44-45
  9. March S, Brinkmann J (2014) Improvement of animal health indicators in German organic dairy farms through "Stable Schools". Thünen Rep 20, Vol. 2:339-342
    pdf document (limited accessibility) 81 kb
  10. Georg H, March S, Brinkmann J, Sporkmann KH (2014) Stable schools für Milchziegenhalter. Bad Bauernzeitg(44):25