GreenDairy- LOEWE-Priority (2022-2025)
As part of its LOEWE excellence initiative, the state of Hesse will be funding the GreenDairy priority under the leadership of Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) from next year. Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Andreas Gattinger (Chair of Organic Farming), the project will spend four years testing agricultural systems that are both ecologically and economically sustainable and enable a high level of animal welfare. The LOEWE priority, in which scientists from the University of Kassel are also involved and for which a total of 4.79 million euros has been applied for, is intended to provide important impulses for agricultural systems research as well as recommendations for action for advisory services and practice.
Industrialisation and specialisation have led to structures in agriculture that are characterised by decoupled material cycles with high nitrogen surpluses, greenhouse gas emissions, competition for land, soil degradation and problems with animal welfare, especially in animal breeding and husbandry. The new research project aims to develop alternatives. One possible solution to close the material cycles again is to keep cattle on mixed farms for milk, meat and plant-based food. So far, there is a lack of knowledge about the effects on ecology, economy and animal welfare of different levels of intensity of such production systems.
This knowledge gap is to be closed in the interdisciplinary research approach involving animal, plant, soil and environmental sciences as well as agricultural and food economics.
The project is based on the new research infrastructure of a digitised dairy farming system at Gladbacherhof.This system enables the scientific comparison of so-called high-input and low-input dairy production systems with digital animal recording, grazing control and feeding and milking robotics. Low-input systems with grazing and predominantly roughage from grassland have so far been considered the standard in organically managed dairy farms.Alternatively, in the high-input system with grazing, the animals are additionally fed a high proportion of the farm's own maize silage and cereals.
Our team will deal with the socio-economic aspects of innovations in organic farming.
Research associate: MSc. Corinna Ullrich (Corinna.Ullrich)
You can find more information about Green Dairy under the following link
