Today (28 November), the opening symposium of the Centre for Sustainable Animal Husbandry is taking place at Leipzig University. The association was founded a few months ago at TUBAF and is an innovation pool for the animal-friendly and sustainable barn of the future. Founding member TUBAF Professor Rüdiger Schwarze and the Vice-Rector for Sustainability and Entrepreneurship at TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Professor Karina Sopp, are represented at the symposium.
Animal husbandry will only have a future in Germany if the requirements in terms of animal welfare, ergonomics and environmental compatibility can be realised in an affordable way. This requires a legal framework that enables creativity and innovations that are implemented on an interdisciplinary basis. The association, whose aim is to contribute to making animal husbandry in agriculture in Germany future-proof and sustainable, is therefore addressing not only representatives of science and existing networks, but above all livestock farmers, representatives of authorities as well as stable equipment suppliers and construction companies from the field.
Opening symposium with important contributions from TUBAF
What could the stable of the future look like? What do animal welfare and ergonomics mean in the barn? - The opening symposium of the Centre for Sustainable Animal Husbandry will address these and other questions relating to the topic of sustainable animal husbandry. Other topics at the symposium include stable climate and environmental compatibility, water and energy consumption in animal husbandry, holistic concepts for the construction, conversion and extension of stables and halls, stable equipment as well as automation and digitalisation. In addition to a welcome address by the Rector of Leipzig University, Prof. Dr Eva Inés Obergfell, the programme also includes a welcome address by the Saxon State Minister for the Environment and Agriculture, Georg Ludwig von Breitenbuch.
"With sharply increasing demands on sustainability, energy efficiency, animal health and animal welfare, innovative solutions are needed to secure the future of livestock farming at the highest level while the number of specialists is dwindling," says Professor Alexander Starke from the Clinic for Cloven-hoofed Animals at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Leipzig University, the chairman of the association Zentrum für zukunftsfähige Tierhaltung e.V. Under the leadership of Freiberg University, researchers, private individuals and members of industry joined forces in July 2025 to form the association. In addition to TUBAF and Leipzig University, TU Dresden and HTWK Leipzig are also represented in the association by scientists.
As a founding member of the Centre for Sustainable Animal Husbandry, TU Bergakademie Freiberg supports the objectives of the centre and contributes expertise from its interdisciplinary fields of competence, including natural sciences, engineering and economics, to the activities of the network. The aim is to optimise stable climate, animal health and resource efficiency in a practical manner in order to provide national and international impetus for climate- and animal-friendly stable construction. TU Bergakademie Freiberg is providing innovative approaches for a climate-friendly barn of the future, for example in the field of fluid mechanics.
Karina Sopp, Vice Rector for Sustainability and Entrepreneurship at TU Bergakademie Freiberg
