News Castration ban
German sow farming gets zero on the bill
From 2019, German sow farmers will have to deal with the ban on the castration of piglets without anaesthetic. The motion to postpone this ban was rejected by the Federal Council on Friday 21 September.
The sow farmers have been dealing with a policy for a long time problem in their stomach. From 1 January 2019, a ban on the castration of piglets without anaesthetic will come into effect. The fear is that the law will entail additional costs, which will worsen the competitive position of German sow farming.
Not a good alternative
In practice, there is not (yet) a good alternative to the ban, while investigations are still ongoing. That is why German sow farmers are calling for a postponement of the ban. This motion was supported in the Federal Council by the states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Meclenburg-Vorpommern. In the vote, a majority was against the postponement; this means the motion has been rejected and the ban is imminent.
Barbara Otte-Kinast, agriculture minister of Lower Saxony, spoke of a 'hard blow' for sow farming. The ISN (the representative of the German pig farmers) also expressed itself in these names. The fear is that the legislation will accelerate the outflow of sow farmers. A logical consequence of this is that German fattening pig farmers will import extra piglets from neighboring countries (mainly the Netherlands and Denmark).
State of emergency
The ISN has not yet given up hope. The representative hopes that the German Ministry of Agriculture will declare a state of emergency at the last minute. Whether that will actually happen remains to be seen. As the cards are now shuffled, German sow farmers must stop castration without anaesthetic from 2019 onwards.
Wouter Job
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