Flora von Steimker
Flora von Steimker studied organic agriculture at the University of Kassel-Witzenhausen for her Bachelor's degree and agricultural sciences at the Georg-August University of Göttingen for her Master's degree with a focus on resource management. The core topics of her studies were sustainable and species-appropriate livestock farming and marketing of agricultural products. In her Master's thesis, she investigated the feasibility of organic certification for sheep and goat husbandry in pastoral farming systems in northern Kenya. After successfully completing her studies, she worked as a consultant for pastoralist livestock farmers in 2021. Her interest in the "InnoRind" project and the desire to do a doctorate led her back to the University of Göttingen in April 2022. As a doctoral candidate and research assistant, she is working on the social acceptance of innovative husbandry and management measures in dairy and beef cattle farming.
Research focus:
- Social and agricultural perception of emotions and needs of farm animals
- Social acceptance of different types of husbandry
- Dialogue-oriented citizen participation procedures for shaping agriculture
Research project:
"InnoRind"Innovation Network Cattle - sustainable cattle farming in Germany taking into account animal welfare, environmental impacts and social acceptance (InnoRind)
The aim of the InnoRind project is to establish a network for sustainable cattle farming and to use the expertise of the project participants to develop innovative approaches for sustainable dairy and beef cattle farming in Germany. These approaches are intended to increase animal welfare and reduce environmental pollution. At the same time, the labour situation of farms and the social acceptance of husbandry and management systems are to be included in the development of sustainable concepts.
As a project partner, the Georg-August University of Göttingen is investigating the social perspective on innovative husbandry and management measures in the areas of calf rearing and beef cattle rearing, among others, in order to incorporate them into the transformation process. First of all, the evaluation, importance and consideration of animal emotions in dairy farming from a social and agricultural perspective will be recorded through interviews and online surveys. A further field of research includes the acceptance and evaluation of different, innovative forms of housing for calves in the first weeks of life from the perspective of the population. In addition, the evaluation of animal welfare and the prioritisation of animal welfare goals in the case of conflicting goals of different housing systems in cattle fattening will be investigated from a social perspective. Furthermore, the aim is to develop and test a dialogue-oriented online citizen participation procedure for the design of future cattle farming, which can be transferred to other agricultural topics.