On Friday, August 8, 2025, we welcomed Karin Logemann, spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group for food, agriculture, consumer protection, and rural development, to Ahlhorn. We got talking to her at this year's Lower Saxony summer festival in Berlin and established contact.
Together with Eva-Maria Gefeller (veterinary committee work), Bernd Wiegmann, managing director of Altmärkische Putenmast GmbH, and Andres Ruff, managing director of the HEIDEMARK Group, she discussed current challenges and opportunities in turkey farming.
After an introductory meeting and a tour of our visitor circuit, the program included visits to two turkey fattening farms.
Important topics of discussion
The agenda included:
Building permits for barns
The planned EU Animal Welfare Transport Regulation
Lack of uniform EU standards for turkey farming
Challenges and conflicting goals
Our goal is to further promote animal welfare in barns and thus meet society's desire for meat from higher husbandry standards. However, husbandry form 3, for example, with 30% fewer animals per barn, also results in lower overall production of turkey meat of German origin.
One possible solution could be to build outdoor climate areas (“winter gardens”) on the long side of the stables. However, this is currently prevented by a lack of building regulations and legal provisions. We also see room for improvement in the planned EU transport regulations in order to reconcile animal welfare and safety.
In addition, there is currently no EU-wide uniform standard for turkey farming. In Germany, a voluntary agreement based on federal standards has been in place since 2013 – a model that could also work across Europe.
Our conclusion
HEIDEMARK is firmly committed to Germany as a business location. To ensure that this remains the case in the future, we need political support to further develop our industry in a sustainable, animal-friendly, and competitive manner.
