University of Hohenheim

Farm animal welfare is one of the main reasons for organic food consumption in Germany, yet many consumers are unaware of common practices such as early cow-calf separation, which they tend to reject once they learn about it. Additional information has been shown to have a positive effect on consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for milk from farms with prolonged cow-calf contact (CCC). Despite their stated WTP, consumers' actual purchasing behavior often deviates from their responses in surveys due to various purchasing barriers, i.e. a high price. To assess the effect of additional information on consumers' choice of organic milk from CCC systems under financial constraints, a choice experiment ( n = 141) was conducted. The sample was split into four groups, which differed regarding the information they received about a label indicating CCC and the budget they were given to purchase ingredients for a pancake recipe, including milk. Due to budget constraints, some participants were forced to prioritize their purchases. The findings reveal that information has a positive influence on consumers' choice of organic CCC milk, however, financial constraints moderate this effect. Informed participants with limited financial resources tend to compromise in their choice of milk. Age and stated WTP for animal welfare predicted the probability of choosing organic CCC milk. By moving beyond conventional WTP analyses, the present study demonstrates that targeted information can induce behavioral change, thereby providing valuable insights into sustainable consumption behavior. • Additional information on a label indicating prolonged cow-calf contact positively influenced consumers' choice. • Financial constraints mitigated the positive effects of the provision of additional information. • Providing additional information to financially constrained individuals led to trade-offs in their purchasing decisions. • Participants' reported willingness to pay for animal welfare was positively related to their choice of organic milk from CCC systems.

There are livestock species such as rabbit, guinea fowl, and grasscutter in Sub-Saharan Africa which are traditionally consumed but have not received as much attention and support from policy and research compared to conventional livestock species such as cattle, sheep, goat, pig and poultry. Despite the growing interest in such neglected livestock species (NLS), evidence on their integration, production, and drivers of adoption remain sparse. This comparative study investigates the production characteristics, profitability, and determinants of farmers' choices between conventional and NLS production in Ogun and Oyo States, Nigeria. We conducted a quantitative survey of 183 smallholder livestock producers, selected using simple random and snowball sampling procedures across Ogun and Oyo States. Data were collected through questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and cost-benefit analysis. The findings show that women were disproportionately engaged in NLS production. Intensive and semi-intensive production systems were the most prevalent, driven by land scarcity and the adaptability of NLS to confined production environments. Feed emerged as the dominant cost component across both species, significantly impacting profitability. Logistic regression analysis showed that the choice of NLS production was positively and significantly associated with mode of land acquisition, profit, and access to credit. Profitability analysis revealed that NLS systems achieved a higher return on investment than conventional systems, offering a viable pathway for enhancing income, food security, and resilience among smallholders in the study areas. Conclusively, with an appropriate policy framework, neglected livestock species could contribute to a transformative shift in Southwestern Nigeria's livestock landscape.

Swelling of food powders upon contact with water is a phenomenon with high relevance for powder reconstitution. Detailed knowledge about swelling kinetics of food powders and factors influencing these kinetics is key to improving product formulations and process conditions. This study focuses on the impact of particle size on swelling kinetics. Two food powders (gelatin powder and soy protein isolate) were studied regarding their maximum water uptake and swelling speed. Gelatin powder was analyzed using NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) relaxometry, while soy protein isolate was investigated by laser diffraction. Kinetic models were used to determine swelling rate and maximum and equilibrium water uptake. For a non-dissolving material (gelatin powder), the swelling rate was found to decrease with increasing particle size, while the equilibrium water uptake was independent of size. For dissolving material (soy protein isolate), both the swelling rate and the maximum water uptake decreased with increasing size. The equilibrium water uptake was not correlated to particle size. • Investigation of particle size influence on swelling kinetics • Methods: laser diffraction and NMR relaxometry • Particle size influences swelling kinetics of food powders • Swelling rate decreases with size, equilibrium water uptake is independent of size • Maximum volume increase of partially dissolving material is size-dependent

The recombinant production of the protein-glutaminase (PG) from Bacteroides helcogenes (PGB) was investigated in the three Bacillus subtilis strains: 168, RIK1285 and the isolated strain 007. B. subtilis 007 produced the highest PG activity (7.6 ± 0.7 µkat LCulture supernatant−1) in shake flask cultivations and, thus, was used for further investigations. As a wild-type strain, B. subtilis 007 exhibited high extracellular proteolytic activity and formed large amounts of foam in a bioreactor cultivation. While the proteolytic activity would be favorable for the extracellular cleavage of PGB’s propeptide, foaming is undesirable and should be prevented. Therefore, the influence of the two foam-demolishing substances anti-foaming agent 204 and rapeseed oil on the PGB production was investigated in bioreactor cultivations. A PGB activity of 11.8 ± 1.1 µkat LCulture supernatant−1 was obtained using anti-foaming agent 204, while rapeseed oil led to a lower maximal PGB activity of 7.6 ± 0.2 µkat LCulture supernatant−1. PGB was partially purified from the culture supernatant by fractionated ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by hydrophobic interaction chromatography. A final yield of 14.8% was obtained, while the specific PGB activity increased from 6.7 to 28.6 nkat mg−1. Alternatively, PGB was purified from culture supernatant by cross-flow filtration and subsequent heating step (1 h, 60 °C) to inactivate the extracellular peptidases. Thereby, the total proteolytic activity was decreased to below 4% while the specific PGB activity increased to 32.1 ± 2.0 nkat mg−1. The PGB preparation obtained was applied in gluten deamidation experiments which showed that PGB deamidated a 1% (w/v) gluten suspension by 95 ± 2%.

Climate change effects, such as rising temperature, carbon dioxide levels and extreme weather events, impact agriculture directly by reduction of crop yields and indirectly by increasing damage of crop pests. Therefore, preventive methods of plant protection, like cover cropping in integrated weed management, gain in importance. Their performance, however, depends on soil moisture and temperature in late summer. This study examined the effects of elevated temperature (+5°C) and increasing drought levels (no, mild and severe drought) on four commercial and two self-composed cover crop mixtures and their weed suppression performance in a split-plot greenhouse experiment from 2020-2022. Cover crop (CC) and weed biomass were assessed, along with weed control efficacy (WCE) and soil coverage. A canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was performed to identify drought and temperature tolerant species. Both, elevated temperature and increasing drought level, reduced CC biomass and soil cover by 50%, severe drought even by more than 80%. Weed biomass was affected similarly, only severe drought reduced it by more than 90%. Nevertheless, CC mixtures, and the self-composed mixtures in particular, reduced weed biomass further and showed consistently WCE of more than 80% and up to 98%. The CCA revealed that Sorghum bicolor , Brassica carinata and Camelina sativa are promising species for future CC mixtures. Even though their biomass and soil coverage were reduced drastically by the examined climate change effects, CC mixtures still showed a high weed control ability. This resilience might be improved further by adjusted sowing dates and establishment methods and in turn improve CC performance under adverse climate change conditions. • The influence of drought and heat stress on cover crop mixtures was examined • Cover crop and weed biomass was reduced by each stress level by approx. 25-50% • Cover crop biomass was reduced, but weed control efficacy was still at 80-98% • Sorghum bicolor , Brassica carinata and Camelina sativa are promising species • Species diversity in mixtures did not contribute to stress resilience

Among the many macro- and micronutrients contained in cow's milk, one of the most important is the lipid fraction. While the nutritional and physiological benefits of milk consumption after the first years of life are the subject of some debate, there also appear to be conflicting views on the health aspects of the milk lipids, including their involvement in cancer. Positive in vitro and/or in vivo data on growth-inhibiting or cytotoxic effects are available for lipid components of milk such as sphingomyelins and their degradation products or various hydroxy fatty acids. Isomers of linoleic acid and branched-chain fatty acids have also been shown to have anticarcinogenic potential in animal models by inducing apoptosis. On the other hand, there is evidence of an association between increased cancer mortality and the consumption of high-fat milk, which contradicts the tumor-protecting effects observed in vitro and in vivo. Consumption of high-fat dairy products appears to be associated with an increased risk of developing types of cancer compared to low-fat dairy or other topical soy-based alternatives. There are ambiguous results for an anticarcinogenic effect of various lipid constituents of cow's milk as well as for an association between general milk fat consumption and the occurrence especially of breast, colorectal, and prostate tumors. Whether the effects observed in epidemiological studies can be attributed to milk lipids or whether the promising preclinical data on their anti-cancer efficacy can be transferred to humans remains unclear at present, therefore this review summarizes the latest findings.

ABSTRACT High internal coordination costs may put cooperatives at a disadvantage in the production and marketing of agri‐food products with hedonic quality attributes. The efficiency of cooperatives and non‐cooperatives is therefore compared with respect to their ability to place wines on the market at prices that reflect their measurable quality attributes. The results of a stochastic metafrontier panel of 1240 wine prices from two German wine guides suggest that consumers should purchase wine from cooperatives if they are seeking a favourable relation between market prices and wine quality. In turn, members of wine cooperatives should ask themselves why non‐cooperatives are typically better at achieving higher prices for the respective quality of their wines and how they can close the price gap with non‐cooperative wineries.