Berchtesgadener Land goes to the movies
Special times require special solutions and many dairies have had their annual general meetings online during the pandemic. Bavarian dairy Berchtesgadener Land did it a bit differently and had an open air gathering for its 88th and 89th annual general meeting in Ruhpolding. The dairy farmers followed the event, each seated individually in their car, while the managing director talked about the economic development of the dairy, especially in the last year.
Pictures of the speakers and their presentations were shown on a large LED canvas and the sound was transported via radio frequency into the cars. Instead of popcorn during the break there was a packed lunch, FFP2 masks and flags for the vote.
In the two past financial years the dairy was again able to achieve important vertices. “Whether plastic reduction, animal welfare efforts or the use of fairly traded ingredients, our philosophy meets the spirit of time, enables higher selling prices and ultimately above-average milk prices for us farmers,” CEO Andreas Argstatter told the farmers.
Safe regular income is the basic foundation of agricultural businesses, so it is a very important concern of continuously high milk prices with the dairy to generate, underlined Bernhard Pointner, who for 10 years has been the dairy’s managing director. This allows investments in animal welfare, buildings and machines on the farms and create the basis, so children also want to stay with agriculture.
In the current year €50 million will be invested in the dairy. The lion’s share of the investment package is going into the new glass filling system.
At least as important is it that the farmers believe in themselves as dairy farmers.
“We do not make plant milk, because we believe in the cow’s milk,” Pointner states.
He called on the farmers to contribute positively to the many negative currents in society with self-confidence, so being a farmer will again be sought-after work and a positive life model in the future.