Organic Field Days 2019 - Impetus for the whole of agriculture

Before Hesse's Minister of Agriculture Priska Hinz opened the meeting place for organic agriculture, she put her vision of 25 percent organic agriculture in 2025 in Hesse on a giant canvas with many other players in the industry. The artwork is as creative and colorful as organic farming itself in finding answers to the pressing issues facing agriculture. "Organic agriculture is becoming more and more important, and the Organic Field Days contribute to that," Hinz said when the paintbrush was exchanged for the microphone again. "New ways of keeping animals, new varieties, and crop rotations as a response to the climate crisis: all this is discussed here between farmers, researchers and politicians in the field, in the barn and in forums," she continued.
 
Spirit of optimism throughout agriculture
In ideal weather, more than 11,000 visitors made their way to Frankenhausen to see what organic farming has to offer - including many conventionally farmed colleagues as well as numerous students and trainees. "The great interest in the Organic Field Days reflects the awakening of many farmers and the innovative power of organic," said Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, chairman of the board of BÖLW. "Organic farmers and those who want to become organic farmers got a wealth of ideas for their daily work here. The success of the Organic Field Days and the solutions that organic has developed for the major issues of the future thus radiate into politics and agriculture as a whole."

"We are pleased that the Organic Field Days have become an established platform for all farmers to share knowledge between practice and research already at the second time," sums up project manager Carsten Veller from FiBL Projekte GmbH after the event and announces a surprise for the Field Days in two years: "Now that we have organized the Organic Field Days very successfully twice at the Hessian State Domain Frankenhausen, a new farm will take over the baton for 2021: the Hessian State Domain Gladbacherhof, the teaching and experimental farm of the University of Giessen."

Technology and traditional knowledge

The number of visitors to the machine demonstrations, the new developments and the specialist forums was particularly high: Here, modern technology, new and traditional knowledge combine. Many camera- and GPS-guided hoes were the focus of interest. Another highlight of the field days were the numerous exhibitors' demo plots and the state variety trials on field bean, wheat, triticale, corn and potatoes. "The most valuable thing about the Organic Field Days was the exchange with colleagues and researchers," says Johannes Eisert, organic young farmer from Gladbacherhof. Particularly exciting for him: the progress in electric mobility. He has been thinking about an electrically powered farm tractor since the Eco Field Days.

The venue - the Frankenhausen domain

The Hessian State Domain Frankenhausen is the teaching and experimental farm of the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences at the University of Kassel. The organic farm is centrally located just outside Kassel. It has extensive covered building capacities, 250 ha of arable land, 40 ha of grassland and modern animal husbandry. The domain is a teaching, research and transfer center for organic farming and sustainable regional development, but it is just as much an economic enterprise: for example, it markets milk, eggs and meat from the farm animals, as well as carrots and potatoes. The farm was the focal point of the Organic Field Days. Visitors were able to see the farm's land and methods. Modern animal husbandry was also demonstrated, using the example of dairy cattle farming and the keeping of laying hens in a mobile barn. A current research project, for example, is concerned with substrates for the close-up area of laying hen houses. The aim is to reduce nutrient inputs in the run area and recover nutrients from the substrate.

Contact:

Markus Zens
University of Kassel
Communications, Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 561 804-1961
E-mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
www.uni-kassel.de
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