Status: 06/19/2023 05:00 a.m
The announced closure of the Vion slaughterhouse in Bad Bramstedt not only has consequences for the employees. The transport routes for many cattle are also becoming significantly longer.
“How many animals do you have in there?” Ulrike Baus asks her son Philipp. The two are in the stable, in the boxes about 80 cattle, all bulls. “13 pieces”, is the answer. Ulrike Baus noted. Actually, she and her family had planned to gradually bring these cattle to Vion for slaughter. Just like they’ve been doing for years. “We live near Neumünster. Bad Bramstedt is around the corner, we drive 45 minutes.”
But since the Dutch conglomerate Vion announced that it would be closing its Bad Bramstedt site, one thing has been clear: Ulrike Baus and her family have to take their animals somewhere else to be slaughtered. “That means that the transport takes up to four hours. And that has nothing to do with animal welfare.”
Other slaughterhouses cannot meet the demand
According to the farmers’ association, many farmers in this country are in the same situation as Ulrike Baus and her husband Heiko. Because in the Vion slaughterhouse, around 3,000 cattle are currently slaughtered per week. The other slaughterhouses and slaughterhouses in the country do not have the capacity to absorb all of this. This is annoying for the farmers from Groß Kummerfeld. Because it is important to them that their cattle are doing well until they are slaughtered.
Short transport routes even when shopping
Heiko Brüggen, Ulrike Bau’s partner, shows his stable boxes. It’s important to them that the animals have enough space, he explains: “In terms of animal welfare, we’re allowed to keep five bulls in here. But we’ve always only had four bulls in here.”
Ten years ago they built an additional barn in which 60 of their cattle are kept as straw cattle. In addition, they only bring animals from close by to their farm in order to keep the transport routes short. Now they fear that the risk of injury for their bulls increases significantly due to the long transport routes, in the best case only two hours to Husum to Danish Crown.
250 employees affected by closure
The closure of the Bad Bramstedter slaughterhouse made headlines three weeks ago. 250 employees are affected. Many of them come from Eastern Europe. The Romanian Paraschiva Lupu told NDR Schleswig-Holstein at the time that she had existential fears: “We are on the ground. We have to pay our rent and take care of our children.” Vion justified the closure with the declining meat consumption. In addition, production has become more expensive since the employees are no longer paid by subcontractors on a piece-work basis, but by the hour.
Agriculture Minister Werner Schwarz (CDU) complained at the time that the closure was also a severe blow to agriculture. According to Werner Schwarz, the state government itself has set short transport routes “and thus animal welfare” as a goal.
Transport costs also increase
For the approximately 90 animals that Ulrike Baus and her husband bring to Vion every year, short transport routes will probably not work for the time being, says the farmer: “It could be that we have to bring them to Lower Saxony or Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. What we obviously don’t want to.” Instead of a 45-minute drive to Bad Bramstedt, their cattle will now have to drive around four hours through Germany. In addition to the stress and risk of injury for the animals, this also increases the transport costs for the farmers.
Further information
Meat production in Schleswig-Holstein has drastically decreased over the past 20 years. The reasons are declining meat consumption and strict laws. more
The northernmost cattle slaughterhouse in Germany was repeatedly criticized. Now it is to be closed – because of the current market situation. more
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Schleswig-Holstein Magazine | 06/16/2023 | 19:30 o’clock