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Bioacademy 2002 - Expert Group 1: The Keeping of Cows and the Commercial Production of Milk in Ecological Agriculture

Organic milk is still in shortage and the processors, producers of organic yoghurt, kefir and cheese have been complaining of its shortage as well as its lower quality. Ecological farmers are having problems with reaching a sufficient content of proteins and fat in milk, since they lack more substantial feed. Sometimes they make big mistakes in the feeding process. To address these issues, the organizers of Bioacademy invited foreign experts who reported on their practical experience of their research results concerning the nutrition of animals in ecological agriculture, the ways of stabling them and veterinary medicine, especially when the inflamation of udder, the so-called mastitis, is being treated.

• Martin Ertl , an Autrian ecological farmer cultivating 39 hectares of farmland, presented its enterprise and summed up the most significant problems of the keeping of milk cattle on ecological farms. The Ertls keep 30 cows of black-spotted cattle, one breeding bull, several pigs and some poultry for their personal needs. Mr. Ertls is an experienced breeder and the crucial parameter of his work is the life-long utility of cows, which involves breeding with the aim of longevity. Nearly one third of the cows in his herd have life-long yield of 50 thousand liters of milk, their yearly production amounts to 6,000 litres of milk (3.9 % and 3,1 % respectively).
• Dr. Josef Juršík , the Slovak expert on the nutrition of cattle, discussed the specific demands of ecological agriculture in his paper. By explaining the physiology of the cow’s digestive system he showed the properties of various kinds of feed and described model feed doses in relation to the yield of milk attained by milch cows.
• Dr. Michael Walkenhorst , who in his research practice in Germany devotes his attention to the study of mastitis and the effects of homeopathic veterinary medicine, described and explained the physiology of milk glands in cattle and the origin of milk in blood in relation to the nutrition of the animal. In his second paper, Mr. Walkenhorst discussed the causes of the inflammation of milk gland in cattle and the possibilities of its prevention and treatment. He paid special attention to the so called complementary ways of therapy, above all the homepathic treatment of inflamations, and observed that certain kinds of mastitis can be treated very well in this way.
• Josef Zöchbauer ( Austria) summed up the principles of the natural stabling of cattle and pointed out their need of having fresh air and enough light, their need of physical movement and the unsuitability of draughts. He gave a detailed account of the appropriate floor surfaces in stables, their coatings, the possibilities of natural ways for cattle to lie down and get up. In his paper, he also discussed the ways of desinfecting milking machines on ecological farms.
• Reinhold Schwingenschlögl presented an interesting project of the commercial use of milk and other organic products used in the catering in Mooerbad Harbach, a spa town in Austria. The guests at the spa eat organic food and the care which the local ecological farmers devote to landscape is apparent in the growing number of visitors to the spa. The farmers cultivate 450 hectares of land in 30 agricultural enterprises; another twenty ecological enterprises farm 500 hectares of land in the neighbouring villages. The participants of the Austrian leg of the Saturday field trip had a chance of getting acquainted with the project.

 

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