“Grow or give way” – this motto of European agricultural policy since the 1960s has never interested the Wimmers. In the last 100 years, the farm has not grown in terms of area. Before the Second World War, the farm had 20 hectares of meadows and still does today. Only the number of cows has increased: from five cows back then to 28 today. But that is significantly less than the current average Bavarian farm with 44 cows. But that is enough for the Wimmers; they don’t want to get any bigger. Does their business concept work because it is an organic farm?
Organic farms used to be laughed at
The Wimmers’ business has always had several mainstays: dairy farming. From the 1960s onwards, holiday guests, so-called summer visitors, came to the idyllically situated farm in Chiemgau and the farmer went to work as a lumberjack. In the 1990s, a brave decision was made, recalls farmer Katharina Wimmer: “My dad and another one were the first in the village to switch to organic farming and that was a bit exotic. The reason: my dad didn’t want any more artificial fertilizers or pesticides, just less chemicals and more natural.” The family was laughed at back then, but today the organic farm is a recipe for success.
Organic farmers were once considered “exotic”
As early as the 1970s, a few farmers in Bavaria switched to organic farming. They did not want to produce more and more mass, nor to get more and more out of their soil and their animals, but rather “went back to the roots”. However, they were not only ridiculed, but also met with hostility because they questioned conventional farming. Nevertheless, their numbers rose steadily over the decades. In 2001, Germany’s first Green Federal Minister of Agriculture, Renate Künast, set a concrete goal: “We want and will increase organic farming to a share of 20 percent in ten years.”
Organic policy goals are not achieved
At the end of 2023, however, only 11.4 percent of agricultural land in Germany was farmed organically. In Bavaria, it is a little more: 13.6 percent of the area. Since 2019, the Bavarian Nature Conservation Act has stated that 30 percent of agricultural land in Bavaria should be farmed organically by 2030. It is unlikely that this goal will be achieved. Bavaria’s Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU) recently admitted that there is still a long way to go, but ultimately you cannot force anyone to switch to organic and you cannot force consumers to buy organic either.
On-farm slaughter instead of calf transport
Organic farmer Andreas Wimmer, who married into the farm in Bergen, is satisfied: “We work behind it every day and have a lot of fun doing it.” He and his wife Katharina have made clear decisions. Animal transport was a thorn in their side. Many calves from Bavaria are transported to northern Germany or Spain to be fattened. The Wimmers’ calves used to be auctioned at the breeding cattle market in Traunstein and then sent on their journey. Now a neighboring partner farm raises the calves. After two to three years, they return to the Wimmers’ farm, fully fattened. “We market every animal that is born here on our farm,” explains Andreas Wimmer. A butcher comes to the farm regularly. There is a cutting room and a small farm shop.
Only a few organic farmers have cow-bound calves
But that’s not the only reason why the Wimmers are exotic: they also raise their calves with their mothers in their barn. This means that the cow and calf are not separated immediately after birth, but the calves are allowed to stay with their mother for a while and drink from the udder. Only around 100 organic farms in Germany practice this. It involves additional work and also means less milk that can be delivered to the dairy. In many farms, cheaper milk replacer is fed to the calves after the first few days instead of cow’s milk.
On Demeter farms, cows have horns
The Wimmers recently took a further step: they are now members of the Demeter Association. Demeter farmers operate according to stricter criteria than other organic farms. For example, calves may not be dehorned. But the “exotic” also brings economic advantages: Demeter milk is better paid than normal organic milk. “I am happy with how the farm is doing,” says organic farmer Katharina Wimmer. There are only 510 Demeter farms in Bavaria, most of which, like the Wimmers, have direct marketing and many also offer farm holidays. The biodynamic farming practiced by Demeter members since 1924 is based on the agricultural concepts of the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner.
