The first winter conference of the Farmers-led Research Network Hesse took place on 16 and 17 February 2023. We were delighted that over 20 farmers and experts from the universities of Geisenheim and Witzenhausen, from organic farming associations and from the LLH took part. On the first day, the pre-existing arable farming and vegetable farming project groups had the opportunity to discuss the respective research content in depth in several interactive sessions, review the past year and plan the coming season. One highlight of the winter conference was a new group of farmers from pig farms. Of particular interest to them was the topic ‘Use of alternative protein sources in pig feeding’. In addition to group discussions, keynote speeches were also part of the varied programme. Gawan Heintze, scientist at ‘Land schafft Energie’ at the TFZ Bayern, was able to meet the great demand for information from farmers on the topic of agrivoltaics with an interesting presentation. The second day of the winter conference was dedicated to the topic of ‘healthy soil’. After an introductory lecture, Stefan Junge (Head of the Land Use Working Group of IG Gesunder Boden and research assistant in the Department of Ecological Plant Protection at the University of Kassel) presented the ‘Erweiterte Spatendiagnose’ according to Andrea Beste. The PFN practitioners had the opportunity to bring soil cubes of their own arable soils, cut out with a spade, and apply the demonstrated spade diagnosis directly to these samples. The lively exchange, the intensive discussions and the committed and cheerful mood of all participants showed how much the Farmers-led Research Network Hesse has met the needs of the farmers.
Photos by Kai Frommann
