On 24 and 25 June 2021, the first face-to-face meeting of the Schwein impulse farms took place. After the long "corona break", during which exchanges were only possible "online", farm managers from a total of 16 impulse farms met in Bad Hersfeld in central Germany.

The first day was spent getting to know each other better. Although some of the farm managers already knew each other from the previous project (model and demonstration project on animal welfare), most of them had only been able to get to know each other in online meetings prior to the event.

Benjamin Unangst from the Boxberg Education and Knowledge Centre (LSZ) was invited to speak on the first day. He joined the meeting online and gave a very vivid presentation with lots of photos on different ways of structuring pens. He presented many examples of conversion options, some of which came from the LSZ itself, but also from practical farms participating in an EIP project in Baden-Württemberg. The conversion of old buildings is an issue that many farm managers are currently grappling with: how can the animals be offered greater "animal welfare" by redesigning the pens within the existing structures? How can areas for resting, activity, eating/drinking and defecation be created?

The arrangement of feeders, drinkers, different floor materials (with the option of cooling or heating, if necessary) or contact grids allows the animals to use the pens in such a way that the aforementioned functional areas are created. If an outdoor run can also be added to the existing barn shell, the functional areas can often be separated from each other even more effectively. Interested parties can find further information on the solutions presented at https://www.eip-schwein.de/index.php.

On the second day, the participants visited Eichhof, the inter-company training centre of the State Agricultural Enterprise of Hesse (LLH). There, Nadja Böck from the "Specialist Information on Animal Husbandry" team, which focuses on pig farming, first gave an overview of the development of animal husbandry at Eichhof over the past decades. Before the tour of the stables, Dr Sabine Schütze (North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture), head of the Animal Welfare Competence Centre (TWZ) for pigs, gave an overview of the entire Focus Animal Welfare network. She explained terms such as expert advisory board and working groups and illustrated how knowledge transfer between all participants is intended to take place.

With its 250 hectares of land and its livestock (dairy cattle with offspring, sow husbandry and piglet rearing), the Eichhof Agricultural Centre now provides the basis for practice-oriented experimentation, training, demonstrations and presentations, as well as education, further education and training measures.

The stables at Eichhof are designed in such a way that inter-company training can be integrated. Various stable systems are on display. A special feature of the pig area at Eichhof is the so-called "experimental barn". An industrial conveyor belt has been installed in this new building, which, thanks to its permeability, allows urine and faeces to be separated. The remaining faeces are slowly transported out of the pen several times a day and removed from the barn by a cross conveyor belt. This technology serves to significantly reduce emissions.