Do endangered sheep breeds have an advantage in organic farming?

Endangered breeds are not compulsory for organic farming, but adapted and local breeds are considered suitable for Organic Farming. In the year 2001, 240 ewes of six different breeds were introduced on the experimental farm of the Institute of Organic Farming in Trenthorst. Two were high yielding breeds, four older endangered German breeds. The whole herd was kept in one herd in a low input – low output system, comparable to agrienvironmental schemes. The scientific programme was to follow the herd’s development in terms of health status, growth rate and product qualities. After three lambing seasons, no real advantages could be found for the old breeds. Nevertheless, high yielding and old breeds did not show big differences in production and health performance. The result is, that even in low intensive organic farming systems, old and endangered breeds need financial support to be competitive with high yielding breeds

Breeding goats for organic production in Germany

With only 120,000 females (year 2000), goat keeping is a niche activity in animal husbandry in Germany. Most of the goats (about 90%) are kept on part-time farms. The main reasons they are kept are as a hobby, for milk production and for landscape management; in many cases it is a non-profit oriented activity. There are estimates (no official statistics exist) that 20,000 goats are milked and 10,000 are used in landscape management to avoid shrub succession on protected biotopes. In the year 2000 10% of the goats (12,000) were kept on organic farms but not all for economic reasons. Because the dairy breeds in Germany (White and Brown German Alpine) are selected under intensive keeping conditions, breeding under the restrictions of organic farming is necessary to get adopted and high yielding flocks. This is even more true in the case of harsh environmental conditions in landscape management. The German breeds are not suitable for the needs while grazing on marginal biotopes. This paper will show some results of: · a ten-year breeding programme for more milk ingredients, fat and protein, in a flock of 30 mother goats on an organic farm and · the breeding programme of the “Witzenhäuser Landschaftspflegeziege WLZ” for the new purposes of landscape management

Using the Expectation Maximization Algorithm with Heterogeneous Mixture Components for the Analysis of Spectrometry Data

Coupling a multi-capillary column (MCC) with an ion mobility (IM) spectrometer (IMS) opened a multitude of new application areas for gas analysis, especially in a medical context, as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath can hint at a person's state of health. To obtain a potential diagnosis from a raw MCC/IMS measurement, several computational steps are necessary, which so far have required manual interaction, e.g., human evaluation of discovered peaks. We have recently proposed an automated pipeline for this task that does not require human intervention during the analysis. Nevertheless, there is a need for improved methods for each computational step. In comparison to gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS) data, MCC/IMS data is easier and less expensive to obtain, but peaks are more diffuse and there is a higher noise level. MCC/IMS measurements can be described as samples of mixture models (i.e., of convex combinations) of two-dimensional probability distributions. So we use the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to deconvolute mixtures in order to develop methods that improve data processing in three computational steps: denoising, baseline correction and peak clustering. A common theme of these methods is that mixture components within one model are not homogeneous (e.g., all Gaussian), but of different types. Evaluation shows that the novel methods outperform the existing ones. We provide Python software implementing all three methods and make our evaluation data available at http://www.rahmannlab.de/research/ims

Organic Fodder Production in Intensive Organic Livestock Production in Europe: Recent Scientific Findings and the Impact on the Development of Organic Farming

Organic farming is practiced in over 100 countries on more than 26 million hectares. In the European Union (EU 25), about 5.6 million hectares of farm land are certified under the EU organic farming regulation 2092/91/EEC. Since 1992, these figures have been increased six times. The 160,000 organic farms in the EU 25 keep about 1.5 million cattle, 1.6 million sheep, 0.55 million pigs and 17.3 million chickens. Two different intensities can be identified: extensive and intensive organic animal husbandry. Extensive animal husbandry is mostly found on low productive and remote areas and carried out with beef cattle, sheep and goats. These systems cope easily with the organic farming standards. Intensive organic animal husbandry is found in more productive areas and done with dairy animals, pigs and chickens. High performance of production demands high quality feedstuff. For these farms, balanced diets are the major difficulty under the organic farming standards. The EU Commission decided that organic husbandry systems must have 100% organic diets by 2011, at that time conventional feedstuffs will be abandoned. This is a challenge for the development of intensive organic animal husbandry systems. In the last years, a lot of research has been carried out to solve the problems of optimised feeding rations for intensive organic animal husbandry. Nevertheless, most of them are preliminary and not all problems have been solved. This paper will present some recent scientific findings in fodder production for intensive organic animal husbandry in Europe: high protein quality, roughage quality, feedstuff processing and “healthy feed. ” The future demands for research and extension (R&D, M&E) will be derived in the conclusions

Alternative strategies to prevent and control endoparasite diseases in organic sheep and goat farming systems – a review of current scientific knowledge

Infestation with gastro-intestinal nematodes in small ruminants can cause server economic losses and endanger animal welfare. The development of organic farming systems, the increased public awareness for drug residues in agricultural products and the development of resistant strains of parasites have enforced the search for sustainable alternatives. The aim of this paper was to provide information about endoparasite infecting small ruminants, to give an overview of the legal background and to investigate alternative control strategies and treatments, discussing them on overall viability. The main section has been divided into a part of non-chemotherapeutical control strategies and alternative anthelmintic treatments. The conducted research has revealed the major potential to be within the field of non-chemical options. Biological control, effective pasture management, selective breeding, enhanced nutrition and the administration of bioactive forages were discussed and found to hold numerous options. The investigation of alternative anthelmintic treatments reviewed phytotherapy, homeopathy and copper-oxide wire particles. Phytotherapy was examined at in detail and found to hold future potential, indicating a strong need for scientific verification of the potential of many plants. In conclusion this paper shows possibilities and limitations in the area of alternative anthelmintic treatments as well as in non-chemical control options and outlines future research fields

New insights into organic farming in Germany – empirical results of a survey in 218 farms

A comprehensive description of the recent structure, performance and developments of organic farming in Germany does not exist. Because of this gap the Institute of Organic Farming and the Institute of Farm Economics of the German Federal Agricultural Research Centre (FAL) have carried out an interdisciplinary empirical analysis of the state of the art of Organic Farming in Germany in 2002-2003. In addition to the status-quo-analysis an important function of the study was to establish a long lasting research-organic farming network. Farm economists, organic crop production specialists, organic livestock specialists and sociologists are member of the scientific network. 218 randomly chosen farms throughout Germany have been surveyed in 2002/2003. The survey was carried out with face-to-face interviews including closed, open-ended and open response-option questions. Up to 15,000 variables per farm have been gathered. In this paper the major findings of the survey are described

Why do humans keep animals? Does the answer help to define standards for organic animal husbandry?

Domestic livestock, such as farm animals and pets, are part of the cultural heritage of mankind. Animals have been used for food, services, non-food or religious purposes or just as a hobby for thousands of years. Man-made breeding has created livestock that are adapted for different purposes and functions. Today, thousand of breeds exist: adapted to the various conditions in human households. The discussion of animal welfare and the definition of standards for livestock keeping have to consider the different functions, ethical values and perceptions of people involved (Badura, 1999). The differences of culture, as well as private and common wealth between individuals, regions and countries, can be a reason for different standards for animal keeping. This discussion can become easier with an understanding of the functions of animals from a historical and ethical perspective. This can help to answer the question of how the animals should be kept

Bioactive forage and phytotherapy to cure and control endo-parasite diseases in sheep and goat farming systems – a review of current scientific knowledge

Infestation with gastro-intestinal nematodes (GIN) in small ruminants can cause severe economic losses and endanger animal welfare. The development of organic farming systems, the increased public awareness for drug residues in agricultural products and the development of resistant strains of parasites have enforced the search for sustainable alternatives. The aim of this review is to summarise the current scientific knowledge of alternative strategies to prevent and control endo-parasitic diseases in organic sheep and goat farming systems. The conducted literature evaluation has revealed the major potential to be within the field of bioactive forages, phytotherapy, homeopathy and copper-oxide wire particles. Alternative management pattern like grazing management, nematophagous fungi, improved fodder and breeding are not considered. The administration and cultivation of bioactive forages and phytotherapy are displaying promise potential for endo-parasite control in organic sheep and goat farming. Scientific research has mainly concentrated on the extracts of the plant species chicory, Birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), Sulla (Hedysarum coronarium) and Quebracho (Schinopsis ssp.). The analysis of these plants showed all plants to have some positive potential, but also highlighted individual limitations in application. However from the results of this literature review none of the investigated plants have been researched sufficiently in on farm experiments to recommend any for implementation at this stage. No concrete recommendation for a single plant can be given, further research on promising species for the commercial use is strongly recommended, as is the review of the law concerning the appliance of plant based remedies

Organic Sheep and Goat Farming

Organic sheep and goat farming is on the rise in Germany and the EU. Many consumers see organic farms as an example of the "intact world" of farming and rural living. Agrienvironmental schemes support conversion from conventional towards organic farming. Only few know how difficult organic sheep and goat farming is from animal welfare, ecological and economic perspective. Newcomers particularly overestimate the production and marketing potential of the field, and underestimate the associated husbandry (e.g., health) and labour problems. It usually takes years to learn how to operate a sheep and goat farm and make it profitable. In addition to patience, good animal handling skills, and marketing ability, qualified professional and veterinary advice is crucial for successful, sustainable development. Many veterinarians do not know enough about organic sheep and goat farming. This paper will give some key information. Organic sheep and goat farming is based on established and monitored production and processing guidelines. In 1999, EU-directive 1804/99EU on the legally binding minimum standards of organic animal husbandry was passed and has been in force since 24th August 2000. This was relevant for sheep and goats as well. It describes exactly the production processes to be adhered to, before advertising organic or eco-production. Higher standards than those demanded by the EU-organic-regulation are laid down by the agricultural associations of organic farming. Usually the standards are not very different. Guidelines alone, however, do not make an environmentally friendly, economic, organic sheep and goat keeping centring on animal welfare. A high degree of knowledge as well as practical skill are necessary to keep live stock in accordance with animal welfare and in an environmentally friendly way, and at the same time to earn sufficient income. Here, the regulations offer little help. However, the experience made by organic sheep and goat farmers having practiced for a longer duration of time, show that, in time, these difficulties can be mastered