From 24 to 30 April 2023, six dairy farmers from Nepal visited Southern Germany for a technical visit on dairy farming.

The study tour, organized by AgrarKontakte International (AKI) e.V., in close cooperation with Mr. Dev Giri of DTC Nepal Pvt. Ltd. aimed at imparting knowledge on advanced technologies and best practices in dairy farming to the participants.

As the Nepalese government provides more and more subsidies to the dairy sector, the farmers wanted to get ideas and knowledge on how to improve milk production and quality in their home country during their study tour in southern Germany.

The journey began with the group's arrival at Munich Airport on Monday 24 April 2023, where they were welcomed by AKI Managing Director Falk Kullen. Mr. Kullen accompanied the group throughout their stay in Germany.

The first program station was the Jägerhof, a dairy farm in Herrsching am Ammersee selling raw milk, where the farmers were able to get an impression of local dairy farming in Bavaria. The tour continued to the Hohenlohe region, where the Horch/Nübel GbR farm with 120 dairy cows, 73 offspring and 65 beef cattle, equipped with a milking carousel, was visited.

On Tuesday, 25 April 2023, the Nepalese farmers visited two more dairy farms. The first farm of the Trittner family has 180 dairy cows and is equipped with three milking robots and a biogas plant. The second farm of the Bäumlisberger family had 40 dairy cows, 80 beef cattle and a milking parlor.

After visiting various farms on the first two days, a visit to the Bäuerliche Erzeugergemeinschaft Schwäbisch Hall (BESH) was on the agenda on Wednesday, 26 April 2023. Here, Mr. Hardy Mann, who accompanied the group through the region for the entire day, gave an introduction to BESH. As one of the most important farmers' cooperatives in southern Germany, BESH is known not only for its Bœuf de Hohenlohe (beef from Hohenlohe) but also for its Schwäbisch-Hällische pigs. So, even if it deviated from the program subject, a visit to one of BESH's pig farms was a must, and Hardy Mann spontaneously organized a visit to the farm of Marion and Frank Walter. Afterwards, the tour continued to the organic farm Gall, which focuses on its milk ingredients according to the motto quality before quantity with 35 dairy cows of the Brown Swiss breed, which are almost exclusively fed with hay. In cooperation with Dorfkäserei Geifertshofen AG, the milk is used to produce hay cheese. Accordingly, the group also learned about an innovative drying system for hay drying, in which the hay is dried via a heat exchanger and an under-roof extractor.

To get a taste of this cheese, the group then visited the processing plant of Dorfkäserei Geifertshofen AG, where they tasted the various regional cheeses made from hay milk from a total of 12 family-run hay milk farms.

Visits to farms of different sizes, number of cows and farm focus throughout the program provided the Nepalese dairy farmers with valuable insights into southern German dairy farming, often characterized by both traditional and modern technologies, always with a strong awareness of best practices in terms of animal welfare and product quality.

Thursday, 27 April 2023, was dedicated to dairy cattle breeding and the group visited the Rinderunion Baden-Württemberg (RBW) e.V. for this purpose. After a demonstration of a wide variety of station bulls organized especially for the group, there was a comprehensive presentation by Mr. Mathias Poferl, among other subjects about cattle breeding in Baden-Württemberg as well as the planning & implementation of breeding programs and ways to increase the breeding progress of the herd.

The study tour was completed by a cultural program at the end of the week, which further enriched the experiences of the far-travelled farmers. On Friday, 28 April 2023, the group visited the historic town of Meersburg on Lake Constance, as well as the town of Ravensburg in southern Swabia. On Saturday, 29 April 2023, a cultural program followed in the Bavarian capital Munich, before the group flew back to Nepal from there on Sunday, 30 April 2023.

It is through collaborative efforts such as this technical visit that the global agricultural community can drive sustainable practices, innovations and improvements in dairy farming and contribute to a successful future for farmers and consumers alike.

The study tour launched further cooperation between AgrarKontakte International (AKI) e.V. and DTC Nepal Pvt. Ltd. and we hope to welcome more guests from Nepal soon.