Animal husbandry on the Hessian state domain Frankenhausen

Animal husbandry has a long tradition in Frankenhausen. The livestock has been recorded in the electoral records in Marburg since 1831. In 1873, for example, 12 horses, 100 head of cattle, 300 sheep and a few pigs were kept. The sheep were used to graze on poor grassland ('Trieschflächen'). In 1896 there was an increase in the number of draught animals (24 horses and 16 draught oxen). In addition, 3 breeding bulls were purchased and a dairy herd of 30 cows was established. The number of sheep and pigs hardly changed. In 1899, a massive new building was erected in which, in addition to horses, pigs were also kept in 2 stables in double-row Danish stabling (16 pens of approx. 18 m² each). During the 2nd World War, for example, 300 pigs were kept.

In the 1920s or 1930s, the farm was converted to preferential milk production. The cows were kept in the barn all year round until the end of the Second World War. After the dissolution of the common land, feeding in the barn was recommended at the time in order to increase milk yield. Dairy farming was then abandoned in 1971, as a number of retail outlets in Kassel had closed and sales of preferential milk declined as a result. The flock of sheep continued to exist until 1976. Since then, the domain has been farmed without livestock.

With the takeover of the domain by the University of Kassel, considerations began to resume animal husbandry. The aim was not only to create a teaching and research resource for the livestock sciences of the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences, but also to make sensible use of the fodder produced in the crop rotation and enable a circular economy between soil, plants and livestock.

The breed of cattle chosen was the German black-and-white lowland cattle, a dual-purpose breed originally native to this region and threatened with extinction. As a dual-purpose breed, the black-and-white lowland cattle are particularly interesting for fattening male calves.

With the help of numerous sponsors (foundations, companies and private individuals), around 100 young animals have been purchased in East Frisia, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg and Hesse. Several stud bulls are kept, which come from our own offspring or are bought in. The calves are not dehorned.

Since June 2001, the cows have been milked in the newly built dairy barn. It is a free stall barn for 100 animals. The barn has half cubicles and half deep litter, the walkways are paved and all animals have access to the exercise yard. Four performance or experimental groups can be formed. The barn is located in the immediate vicinity of the grassland to allow grazing. Milking takes place in a double six-stall herringbone milking parlor with the Happel system and automatic milk quantity measurement. The milk is marketed as organic milk via the Upländer Bauernmolkerei dairy in Usseln.

The offspring are kept in group pens on deep litter in a new open-front barn built at the end of 2007.

The 670 laying hens are kept in two housing systems: They spend the summer in a self-developed mobile barn on a field feeding area, and in winter they have their barn in a frost-proof old building.
Here too, a dual-purpose breed was chosen in order to enable ethical treatment of animals of both sexes in chicken farming.