Suppliers
We expect the business practices of our milk suppliers to tie in with our own company guidelines and ethical principles. That includes human and animal welfare as well as quality, reliability and regionality. It goes without saying that we comply with all the regulations and quality standards of the European Union and have all the relevant certifications, e.g. for organic production and from VLOG (association for foods without genetic engineering). If our customers wish, we can also meet religious standards such as halal or kosher.
We are convinced that mutual trust and fairness are important requisites for reliable premium quality. That is why we attach such importance to long-term cooperation with our partners. Lactoprot carries out regular checks on all its suppliers. That serves to supervise adherence to standards, but it also enables an exchange of information on the latest developments and helps to promote good relations.
General Terms and Conditions of Purchasing (download) >>
Code of conduct (download) >>
I purchase raw milk for Lactoprot, and among other things I act as a contact for about 85 suppliers. All of them have been carefully selected; I know the farmers and their cowsheds personally. To our mind, responsibility means working to establish long-term partnerships and trying to guarantee our suppliers a reasonable, above-average milk price. Regionality is important to us, too. Milk doesn’t improve by being carted over long distances. We prefer short routes and concentrate on a catchment area within a radius of about 80 kilometres from our dairy in Leezen.
Jesko Schirrmann, Purchasing
Smart Farming
Smart farming is revolutionizing animal welfare through the use of modern technologies. Our milk suppliers gladly take advantage of these benefits. For instance, Jörg Riecken from Großbarkau operates a full pasture system with seasonal calving, where the cows are on pasture from mid-April to October. This reduces feed costs in the summer and optimizes hoof health. Since November 2022, Jörg has been using three DeLaval milking robots, which are connected to a pasture selection gate, allowing the cows to enter and exit freely after milking. The entire farm is equipped with Wi-Fi and a high-quality camera system that includes infrared for night monitoring. Portable sensors monitor the vital signs of the animals, enabling early interventions and thereby reducing the use of antibiotics. Automated feeding systems provide tailored nutrition, improving health and productivity. Climate control systems in the barns prevent heat stress and increase comfort. The precision of the technologies reduces waste and promotes ethical animal husbandry. Farmers benefit from increased efficiency and can focus more on the well-being of the animals. Transparency in these practices strengthens consumer trust in humane agriculture. Overall, smart farming creates a more humane, efficient, and sustainable agricultural system.
Sustainable Agriculture
It is particularly noteworthy that all milk suppliers in the region are making great efforts to implement sustainable practices, thereby making a significant collective contribution to environmental protection. This sets an example for sustainable and future-proof agriculture. For instance, the farm of Detlef Petersen in Fargau-Pratjau focuses on sustainable farming by growing its own basic feed locally and purchasing concentrated feed regionally. The farm operates a 400 kW biogas plant, which is run with 75% slurry and solid manure and 25% feed leftovers and a small amount of corn, so that hardly any fresh harvest is used for the plant. The produced heat is used for heating the buildings and for fertilizer production through the drying of separated digestate. Solar panels with a capacity of 930 kWp are installed on the roofs, with about 20% used for the farm's own needs. The farm aims to become climate-neutral and is planning heat concepts in collaboration with the community. Leased moorland is managed in a way that preserves the natural habitats optimally, and the growth can be used as feed. Through adapted technology such as digestate separation and drag hose distributors, the existing farm manure is specifically applied, making the purchase of nitrogen fertilizer only necessary in exceptional cases. These measures help minimize the farm's ecological footprint and maximize sustainability. The farm demonstrates how innovative techniques and regional cooperation can promote environmentally friendly agriculture.
Recognized Breeding Farms
Many of our milk suppliers are recognized breeding farms organized in the Rinderzucht Schleswig-Holstein eG (RSH eG) and have been successfully breeding Holsteiner and Angler breeds for many generations. An outstanding example is Michael Petersen in Taarstedt, who has developed a particularly high-quality gene pool by breeding the "old" Angler cattle breed. This breeding tradition has resulted in all the cows on his farm having particularly high breeding values and enjoying excellent animal health. Combined with optimal animal welfare, this ensures high performance and very good milk content, meeting the high standards of cattle breeding. The offspring are produced using sexed semen, ensuring that only as many heifers are produced as needed on the farm. Surplus heifers with excellent genetics are offered for sale, while all other cows are inseminated with Angus or Belgian Blue-White bulls for meat production. This thoughtful approach maximizes both milk and meat production and minimizes the farm's ecological footprint. The high milk and lifetime milk yield of the cows is not only a key success factor for economical milk production but also an important indicator of low greenhouse gas emissions. Michael Petersen's family-run farm thus exemplifies sustainable and future-proof cattle breeding in Schleswig-Holstein.
