Description

Practice abstract

The farm “Oberniederhof” specialized in beef production, is located in Schnalstal, South Tyrol. The farmer Fabian Tappeiner has chosen a suckler-cow husbandry system for ethical reasons. The calves, whether male or female, stay with their mother until weaning, ensuring a natural and gradual separation between calf and cow.  

What´s distinctive for this farm is the combination of grazing close to the farmstead pastures and grazing on the summer mountain pastures. This gives the animals the opportunity to graze throughout the entire vegetation period. On the alpine pastures  at the “Mitterkaser Alm”, situated at 2000 meters a.s.l, the animals have access to 240ha from early July to mid-September. Here, the suckler cows and pregnant cows are kept in 3 paddocks near the alpine hut. 

During the grazing period at the summer mountain pastures, neither conserved forage nor concentrates are fed to the cows. Keeping the animals at the summer mountain pastures, significantly saves time for the farmer allowing to focus on tasks like forage harvesting, direct marketing and guest services.  

The beef produced on this grassland-based cattle fattening farm can be effectively marketed directly by the farm. 

Context profil