Pork keeping in the Werra-Meißner district: a shadow of the past!

Pork keeping in the Werra-Meißner district: a shadow of the past!

In the Werra-Meißner district, the pork keeping faces a worrying decline. According to a report of the Werra-Rundschau there is no more operation that can only live from this animal husbandry. Uwe Roth, the chairman of the district farmers' association, finds that the downward trend in pig farming has been pending for years. A decade ago there were over 100 companies in the region that concentrated exclusively on pig farming.

The economic situation is critical. A farmer has to keep at least 1500 mast animals in order to be able to secure his livelihood through the pig fattening. However, Burkhard Gonnermann, operator of a pig farm, is fighting with significant declines: he reduced the number of his sows from 270 to 90 and the rearing places from 1500 to 700. The constantly changing editions are unsettled by farmers, while the swine population in the Werra-Meißner district has dropped by more than 20 percent in recent years.

economic challenges

The financial challenges are increasing. The payout price for slaughter maturity pigs is currently only 1.72 euros per kilo, which is drastic compared to the cost of a 25-kilogram toxins of 45 euros. The price for piglets has almost halved since March 2020. This hits many companies hard, because the profitability of pig farming is severely impaired, even by increasing demands on the part of the authorities.

But the challenges do not end in pricing. Agrarheute reports that the mood among pig owners in Germany is mostly negative. Many know a colleague who has given up or plans to do this. The continuation of pig farming is increasingly risky, both financially and bureaucratic.

The decline in small businesses

small businesses are excluded from strict regulations, their number also decreases, from 465 companies in 2012 to around 300 today. This is worrying because they contribute to the preservation of the regional sausage culture, as the Ahle sausages. This is made from the meat of local small businesses and could be valuable support for the affected farmers.

The Mensch & Tier Foundation declared 2025 to the year of the pig and is committed to a respectful cooperation of all living beings. A positive trend could be the growing number of people who eat vegetarian (over 8.43 million) or vegan (approx. 1.47 million). In the long term, these changes could lead to an increasing appreciation of high -quality pork, which could give the industry new hope.

In order to withstand the economic pressure, the willingness to change must be available to many farmers. Many companies, as one of the farmers in Agrarheute , have converted their stables to keep up with the new requirements. These conversions are often associated with high costs and last long, sometimes some companies had to make do without income.

The situation shows how important it is to better understand the needs of farmers and to help them with both conversion and fair prices. The structural change not only affects the Werra-Meißner district, but is a nationwide phenomenon. It is to be hoped that politics and society will take the challenges of pig farming seriously and find solutions together.