PD Dr. Silvia Ivemeyer
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Committed to animal welfare
PD Dr. Silvia Ivemeyer - Diploma I Organic Agriculture, graduated 2002.
Currently: Researcher at the Department of Livestock Ethology and Animal Husbandry, University of Kassel/Witzenhausen.
Growing up with farm animals
Growing up on a farm, I was interested in cattle from an early age. By contrast, keeping pigs for fattening in barns with fully slatted pens was something I was rather reluctant to do even as a child. As a teenager, I kept my own pigs in free-range systems as an alternative model, and only made an exception to being a vegetarian when it came to the meat of my own pigs. After school, I sought agricultural paths that corresponded to my understanding of animal husbandry and land management, and began an apprenticeship on biodynamic farms. This was a time that had a significant impact on my life. I spent one year of my apprenticeship mainly in the cowshed and with the associated feed advertising. Many questions that still occupy me in research today have their roots in this time. I began to eat meat again from animals whose husbandry I could stand behind, because it became clear to me that meat belongs with milk.
Witzenhausen first choice of study
After my apprenticeship, it was clear that I wanted to continue in the direction of organic agriculture. In the decision between Kleve as a technical college or Witzenhausen as a university, Witzenhausen "won" because of the prospect of less schooling and more self-determined learning. In addition to the fact that contacts and friendships were made both in teaching and during my studies, which still exist today, it was a good fit for me that the compulsory courses were feasible in terms of the amount of work involved and gave me the freedom to deal more deeply with topics that particularly interested me - these were livestock, especially dairy cows, but also landscape design and biodiversity in agriculture. Other highlights of my studies were the participation in field trips, especially the excursions abroad, but also the co-organization of a student conference on a topic that concerned me from my biography: farm succession on family farms and social interaction in farm communities.
Doctorate at FiBL in Switzerland
Through my diploma thesis, I came into contact with the Animal Health Group at FiBL in Switzerland. The subsequent offer for a six-month internship turned into 10 years of research for me at FiBL in Switzerland. The decision to stay at FiBL for a dissertation after the internship was particularly driven by the topic of the associated project: it was about improving udder health and reducing antibiotic use on dairy farms. The broad research project in the area of causes of udder health problems and the joint work with farmers on farm-specific improvement strategies was exactly what interested me.
Back to Witzenhausen for habilitation
After the years at FiBL, it appealed to me to get to know science again from a different, university perspective and the opportunity arose - back in Witzenhausen - to work in the Department of Farm Animal Ethology and Animal Husbandry in Ute Knierim's team, which gave me the opportunity to learn, to teach courses and at the same time to continue my path in research and to habilitate. Topics were and are among others (still) human-animal-relationship and udder health, cow-bound calf rearing as well as the definition and application of animal welfare indicators - in science, on-farm self-control as well as organic control. Besides the employment at the university I currently support the farming association Gäa e.V. in the field of animal welfare and carry out smaller projects and training assignments through the Beratung artgerechte Tierhaltung e.V. (BAT) in Witzenhausen. In addition, I am involved in a livestock community with sheep and landscape management, so that I have currently found a good mix of some own agricultural activity, scientific work and implementation of research results in practice for me.