Description

Practice abstract

The organically managed Tangsehl farm is located on sandy soil in Northern Germany and manages 110 ha grassland and 50 ha arable land. As a diverse, mixed crop-livestock farm, they milk a crossbred herd of about 30 cows. Their main challenge on this rather dry site has been the availability of water to maintain a certain level of grassland productivity. Also, they manage leased land which comes with some degree of uncertainty and less planning security for the future. 

To cope with a drier climate and sandy soil conditions, they saw the need for a type of management that supports the build-up of humus and good soil cover by retaining high levels of organic matter: as soon as the grass enters the three-leave-stage, cows are rotated across the paddocks rather fast and in high densities, allowing them to take up only the upper third of the sward which reduces the risk f grass entering the reproductive phase. Due to the high stocking density and short grazing period, trampled residues remain and form a mulch layer. The idea is that this return of organic material increases soil  fertility, microbiome, and water retention capacity. Therefore, in contrast to other grazing strategies, residues are not considered a waste, but a valued input of organic matter. This approach does not require investments in technology but planning and know-how of the interactions between growth period, livestock, and soil. 

However, such a system implies lower levels of production output. To compensate for this and to foster independence from market prices, the farm adopted direct-marketing of milk and dairy products. Through solidarity-based agriculture, the farm established close ties with a network of local clients whose financial contributions to the farm are returned to them in form of products from the farm.  

Finally, to avoid high investments in the construction of a conventional milking parlour – the farm is based on leased land – they opted for a mobile milking parlour (MoohTech). This appeared to be cheaper in their case and offers the opportunity to also milk on the pasture. 

Context profil