Animal husbandry that involves species-appropriate feeding, plenty of space to roam, and a gentle, low-stress journey to the abattoir is what both consumers and farmers want. At the Eßer farm in Rommerskirchen-Ramrath, known as ‘Der Gänsepeter’, particular emphasis is placed on these aspects. As part of a farm tour organised by the North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture for the Fokus Tierwohl network, farm manager Sebastian Eßer spoke about the life cycle and slaughter of the “Christmas goose”, as well as the slaughter of hens and chickens and the wide-ranging marketing of the various products.

First, the group visited the abattoir, completed in 2020, where the farm’s own geese are slaughtered seasonally and laying hens and chickens are slaughtered year-round. Junior farm manager Sebastian Eßer explained at the outset that the different areas of the abattoir are marked with different floor colours, as are the work materials. “The advantage here is that staff who speak other languages can easily be shown how to comply with the hygiene rules in the facility. It is important that our geese are clean and dry on the day of slaughter, as we want to ensure effective stunning and the best possible feather quality,” said Eßer. Before the geese are slaughtered, the flock is tested for bird flu, known as avian influenza (AI). “You can’t tell by looking at a goose whether it is infected with the virus or not. We require an AI test before slaughtering any non-native poultry,” explains Eßer.
On the day of slaughter, the geese are then herded into a straw-lined antechamber in the slaughterhouse. Once the animals have calmed down sufficiently, they are stunned individually using a V-electrode. The stunned animals are then hung onto the slaughter line, followed shortly afterwards by the throat cut.

In the next step, the geese are placed on a wire mesh rack with hot water beneath it. This ensures that the carcass does not get wet, but that the hot steam simply opens the skin pores to make plucking the feathers easier. For geese, Eßer uses a dry plucking machine fitted with a large suction pipe that draws the feathers directly into storage rooms. “Our geese have an average slaughter weight of 4.5 kg and yield approx. 20 g of down and 150 g of raw feathers.” These are processed externally and turned into duvets and pillows by manager Renate Eßer.

The slaughter line is designed not only for geese, but also for chickens and broilers. After being hung on the slaughter line, the birds pass through an electric bath for stunning – one of many innovations in the abattoir, explains Eßer. These also include an automatic scalding unit and plucking machine, as well as more space for eviscerating the carcasses of poultry and geese. “These innovations enable us to increase our capacity and efficiency.” The large cold stores with powerful refrigeration units enable continuous air circulation, resulting in rapid drying and cooling of the slaughtered animals to below 4 °C. “The meat can be packaged as early as approximately three hours after slaughter.” Eßer offers laying hen farmers various options for marketing their slaughter hens. Either the farmer pays the slaughtering costs and takes back the entire carcass, or Eßer’s business buys the animals from the farmer on a per-bird basis and uses them to produce stock, fricassee or similar products. “In that case, however, the farmer is obliged to buy the products made from the slaughtered animals,” says Eßer.

However, the core business of “Der Gänsepeter” lies not in the rearing and marketing of geese, but in the trade and repackaging of other poultry meat products. These are, for example, packaged in smaller portions with their own seasoning or further processed into soups or stews. These products are sold only to farm shops in the local area.

Another smaller branch of the business is the sale of goose table eggs, originally just a speciality in the Ruhr region, but the eggs are now also dispatched throughout Germany. As goose eggs are not subject to labelling regulations, labelling is not required in advance. “Our main customers are often people with allergies who cannot tolerate chicken egg white. It’s good if a goose lays 40 eggs per season,” says the junior farm manager. The laying geese remain in the flock for up to six years on average.

After the tour of the slaughterhouse, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the open spaces and goose houses, we went straight to a tunnel house where day-old goslings were housed. These are generally vaccinated against parvovirus and Escherichia coli. “It is very difficult to obtain goslings in July, as the parent birds stop laying eggs from late spring onwards. The reason for this is the length and intensity of daylight,” says Eßer. The junior farm manager explains that groups of goslings of roughly the same age are housed together after a rearing period of approximately three weeks. From day one, the goslings have access to deep open-air drinking troughs.

During the rearing phase, the geese are fed a special starter feed, followed by a mixture consisting of wheat, barley, feed lime, soya beans, soya oil, various minerals and field beans, which are being replaced by peas this year. In addition, the Eßer farm uses garlic and effective microorganisms to stabilise the stomach and intestines in the drinking water, which is available via nipple drinkers and large open-air drinking troughs.

After the rearing phase, the geese are free to choose whether to stay in the barn or use the outdoor run. “Every year we grow several hectares of maize, which we let the geese into at a certain stage. Initially, they mainly eat the lower leaves, so that the cob can develop as normally as possible.”
At the start, Eßer also flattens a strip of maize daily with the farm loader so that the upper leaves can be eaten too and the remaining maize still has time to develop properly.
“By the end of the fattening period, there’s nothing left of the maize field. The animals have such sharp beaks that the field looks like it’s been chopped up afterwards. Sometimes you really wonder what geese can destroy, such as water pipes in the barn,” says Eßer. The maize serves as both a source of activity and feed.

In addition, the animals are fed maize silage and a mixture of cereals indoors and consume around 50 kg of feed until slaughter. This year, Eßer is growing maize in combination with field beans for the first time, as crop rotation regulations no longer permit maize to be grown directly after maize. However, this is permitted again when combined with the legume.

Author: Johannes Heer, North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture