Low intensity farming systems in Germany

Rainer Luick

Germany is probably not the first place that comes to mind when talking about low intensity farming systems - most regions in Germany are characterised by highly intensive agriculture. However, the current status of extensively managed meadows and pastures is of great concern.

As is still the case in Mediterranean regions, low intensity pastures in Germany covered vast areas of land until the middle of the last century. It was normal at that time to keep livestock outdoors for most of the year, before storage of fodder for the winter was commonly practised.

As a result of poor management, the pastures were certainly rich in structure. On the other hand, the economic forces for a maximal exploitation of all natural resources caused these pastures to be overused, and resulted in ecological devastation. It is quite important to bear in mind that the present ecologically highly-valued grasslands have their origin in this devastating agriculture of previous times. To some extent, it is the withdrawal of agricultural activities which leads to landscapes rich in structure.

The widespread adoption of intensive agriculture, and the abandonment of farming in the most marginal areas has led to a dramatic decline in extensive grasslands. The only examples of regions with considerable areas of extensive grasslands in Germany are alpine pastures in remote areas, the pastures in the southern part of the Black Forest, and the Central-German-Mountain-Range (i.e. Eifel, Vogelsberg and Rhön), the heaths of the Swabian and Franconian Jura, and in northern Germany (e.g. Lüneburger Heath), lowland pastures along the Elbe-river and flooded saltmarshes along the coast-line of the North and Baltic Seas. Even in these areas, extensively managed grasslands are still only found on a very small scale. Some regions correlate with the distribution of indigenous and endangered livestock species such as the Black Forest-Hinterwald-Cattle, the Red-Vogelsberg-Mountain-Cattle, the Rhön-Sheep or the "Schnucke" (sheep) of the Lüneburger-Heath.

One of the most attractive regions with a tradition of pastoralism is the southern part of the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg. There are remnants of a medieval type of agricultural system, with common grazings. Although the number of the communal pastures has decreased in the last decades, they still extend over an area of approximately 10,000 hectares. The communal pasture land region is also the breeding area of the Black Forest Hinterwald-Cattle which is the smallest and lightest Central European Cattle species.

The biggest threat to all mountainous regions in Germany is the dramatic number of closures of dairy farms which are the basic economic structure for many low intensity farming areas. In the south-western part of Baden-Württemberg, about 70 % of dairy farms disappeared within twenty years and with them about 40 % of the cattle. The landscape reflects these changes, and in some places only small strips of cultivated land are left down in the valleys.

Sheep-keeping and ecologically-rich chalk grasslands are found in the Swabian and Franconian Jura. The system of transhumance practised in the Jura is unique in central Europe. The system developed as late as at the end of the 18th century when the Merino was introduced from Spain. The typical feature of the Swabian transhumance were the use of pastures during summer on the heaths of the Swabian and Franconian Jura and from autumn to spring in the valleys of the Rhine or Danube or by Lake Constance. Today, transhumance in the Swabian Jura exists only on a small scale and shepherds are confronted with many problems to maintain the system.

New features of extensively used landscapes in Germany were created by the conversion of industry-like cattle farms in the new länder into suckler cow farms as for instance in coastal regions along the Baltic Sea. There are farms which operate on several thousand hectares of land with low livestock densities.

One of the most important aspects of the current discussion on the conservation of low intensity farming systems is the question of how to maintain agricultural systems in the less favoured regions. Because production of milk or meat in areas such as the Black Forest will never be able to compete with the global agricultural market, it is essential to establish localised cycles of processing and consumption, near to the place at which the goods are produced .

Rainer Luick is a member of the European Forum of Nature Conservation and Pastoralism (EFNCP), a European-wide network of scientists, farmers, conservationists and politicians.

Rainer Luick
Institute for Landscape Ecology and Nature Conservation
Mühlenstraße 19
D-78224 Singen
Germany

Tel: +49 7731 9962 0
Fax: +49 7731 9962 18
Email: ILN.Singen@t-online.de

24th February 1997