The 2023 Organic Field Days are almost upon us again. On June 14 and 15, 2023, the meeting place for organic farming will take place for the first time in Baden-Württemberg, at the Grieshaber & Schmid organic farm in Ditzingen near Stuttgart. FiBL Projekte GmbH has announced that the event will return to the two-day format.
“With a two-day event, we are returning to the compact format and the original scheduling in odd calendar years,” explains Carsten Veller, Project Manager for Program & Network, adding: “Our survey of exhibitors was clear: over 70 percent of participants would like to see a return to two days of events. The main reason for this was the high personnel costs and lower visitor numbers on day three in 2022. There are always pros and cons. We are guided by the needs of the majority.”
Format is tailored to the new yard
As usual, the organizer FiBL Projekte GmbH adapts the program of the Organic Field Days to the farm on which they take place. One focus of the Grieshaber & Schmid organic farm and the 2023 Organic Field Days is field vegetable production. With increasing drought, irrigation and sprinkler technology is playing an increasingly important role here. The machine demonstrations will also focus primarily on vegetables, for example hoeing between and in the row. These and many other topics will also be addressed at the Eco Field Days in several specialist forums. “Another trending topic that we will be showcasing at the Eco Field Days 2023 is agrivoltaics and energy storage,” says Veller. The program also reflects the entire breadth of sustainable agriculture, ranging from crop cultivation and animal husbandry to marketing and research.
The event team is already in the midst of work: planning is already in full swing on 15 hectares of exhibition and practice areas at the Grieshaber & Schmid organic farm in Ditzingen-Hirschlanden. The stand areas with demonstration plots and in the exhibition hall are already fully booked and the first winter crops have been sown. Stand areas without demonstration plots in the outdoor area and machine demonstrations can still be booked. The registration deadline is December 31, 2022.
FiBL Projekte GmbH is organizing the Öko-Feldtage 2023, with the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Agriculture, the Grieshaber & Schmid farm and the Stiftung Ökologie und Landbau foundation as co-organizers. The BÖLW is the patron of the event and the REWE Group is the gold sponsor of the Öko-Feldtage 2023.
Background
The nationwide Organic Field Days are a two-day meeting place for all organic farmers and all farmers who want to convert or are looking for new methods for environmentally friendly agriculture. The event offers players from the entire sector an ideal platform to discuss current topics with farmers and representatives from politics and business. The Innovation Show shows where organic farming stands and where it is heading.
Focus on the entire organic farming system
A key difference to “classic” field days is that animal husbandry plays a central role because livestock and the circular economy are important components of organic farming. The focus is on the entire organic farming system with innovative operating concepts, cultivation systems and modern animal husbandry in all its diversity.
The Eco-Field Days 2017 and 2019 took place at the Hessian State Domain Frankenhausen, the teaching and experimental farm of the University of Kassel. The third Eco-Field Days moved to the Hessian State Domain Gladbacherhof, the teaching and experimental farm of the University of Giessen, in 2022. Now the next Organic Field Days are moving south from Hesse to Baden-Württemberg to the Grieshaber & Schmid organic farm in Ditzingen-Hirschlanden.