[Characteristic features of ecological animal husbandry]

In recent years conventional livestock farming has been impressively successful referring to the increase in performance of farm animals and to the decrease in production costs. On the contrary, following the dictate of production-intensification, animal health and welfare as well as environmentally friendly production have been pushed into the background because of being cost- and labour-intensive. Evaluations of animal health status of farm animals indicate that a considerable number of farm animals cannot cope with the requests of increase in performance. This may be due either to physiological limits or inadequate housing and management conditions. Ecological animal husbandry as an integrative Part of organic farming is an alternative to the previous development, aiming at high quality standards concerning animal health and welfare as well as environmentally friendly production. Farmers have to follow the code of practice before being entitled to label their products as organic food and demand for premium prices. The willingness of an increasing number of consumers to pay premium prices enables the farmers to balance the economical pressure on the production costs and on the yields of the farm animals. While the code of practice limits the amount of area-born products, options are gained for the optimization of the production process for the benefit of the farm animals and the environment. The capacities of ecological animal husbandry for high process quality standards are discussed hypothetically. Due to the phenomenon of various influences and interactions there is still a lack of methodology in order to assess the process qualities and the implications of different farming strategies in a complex and objective manner, resulting in a new challenge for natural science to establish a methodology that enables a more comprehensive approach.