Pilot organisations for animal welfare within the Focus on Animal Welfare network
A key pillar of the Focus on Animal Welfare network is the group of pioneering animal welfare farms, which act as trailblazers for the profession through innovative and sustainable animal welfare concepts.
A Germany-wide call for participation has been taken up not only by farms from the networks of the model and demonstration projects on animal welfare, but also by DLG top farms and other forward-looking farms. Since the beginning of 2021, up to 50 farms per animal species (cattle, pigs and poultry) have been exchanging experiences and new insights within species-specific networks.
The networking takes place in small group discussions with a maximum of 15 participants or in larger thematic meetings. Expert input is provided either directly by the pilot farms or by recognised external speakers. The farms are expected to take on board experiences from within Germany and abroad, develop them further and adapt them to their own operational circumstances. Findings from the pilot farms are also actively incorporated into the committee work of the Animal Welfare Focus Network and into events organised by the network partners in the federal states.
The Pilot Farm Network is supported and coordinated by FiBL Deutschland e.V. The participating farms can be found on the Pilot Farm Map – searchable by animal species and federal state.
Funding from the federal Livestock Farming Programme will support the nationwide collaborative project ‘Network Focus on Animal Welfare’ for a further three years, with the aim of disseminating knowledge on animal welfare in agricultural livestock farming. In recent years, numerous events and intensive specialist work have enabled the establishment of a comprehensive network of practitioners, advisers and scientists from all federal states. Bringing together scientific findings and practical experience is key to establishing forward-looking yet practical methods for agricultural livestock farming.
For the second funding phase, the programme is once again seeking committed and motivated farms across the country with a forward-looking concept for greater animal welfare and sustainability, which will contribute their knowledge and experience to the Focus on Animal Welfare network. There is no legal entitlement to participate; farms will be selected on the basis of defined criteria.
