Initiative for schools

Dairy cow & manure: “Children know less and less”

Family life and agriculture are closely intertwined in Tyrol - unlike in many other regions. However, knowledge is often lost among young people. "Schule am Bauernhof" is successfully working against this. For 25 years, the initiative has been providing insights into everyday working life between the beehive, chicken enclosure and cowshed. To mark the anniversary, those responsible invited the children to the Pungghof farm in Absam.

Sometimes it smells bad - and the animals don't always react like in a petting zoo. And yet: the pupils in Year 1 at Absam Sports Middle School soak up everything that the Strasser family's Pungghof farm has to offer in terms of "real" life away from the classroom, TV and games consoles.

"I like the hens because the Easter eggs tasted so good," beams Manuel (11). Marie, who is the same age, is drawn to the bees - "and I could imagine living on a farm myself one day".

37 Tyrolean farms on board, around 3000 children a year
"Schule am Bauernhof" was launched 25 years ago - and since then, around 85,000 children on 37 Tyrolean farms have come into contact with much of what goes on in the barns, fields and vegetable gardens of the region. There were around 3,000 schoolchildren last year alone. "In Tyrol, agriculture and life are intertwined, and this is exactly what we want to convey," said LK President Josef Hechenberger.

In Tyrol, agriculture and life are intertwined, and this is exactly what we want to convey.

LK-Präsident Josef Hechenberger

It is not uncommon to have to literally start from scratch: "A goat is not a sheep and a cow is not purple," smiles Hechenberger. Pungghof farmer Johanna Strasser has been experiencing a similar unwanted distance to the farming world for ten years, after she acquired the necessary certificate: "Children's knowledge is declining. Many don't know simple animal terms such as calf or bull."

Basic idea: realistic insight for young people
The basic idea in 1999 was to change this and give young people a realistic insight into everyday life on farms. "We now have participating farms all over the province, from Außerfern to East Tyrol," explains Evelyn Darmann, project pioneer and head of the Rural Training Institute (LFI) Tyrol. LFI chairwoman Christine Lintner refers to the certificate courses for farmers, who are thus pedagogically prepared for the curious little visitors.

For Manfred Liebsch, principal of Absam secondary school, the main focus is on one thing: "Everyone can see how much heart and soul goes into the work on a farm." And despite the often-maligned school bureaucracy: "There are no problems integrating the farm visits into the curriculum." So that the children really experience the farm with all their senses, there are a few delicacies from the farm's own production at the end.

Proper nutrition with "Schmatzi"
What grows in Tyrolean gardens and fields? And what has to be imported from abroad? The "Schmatzi SeminarbäuerInnen" project has been complementing the "Schule am Bauernhof" project since 2001, which is also an initiative of the Tyrolean Rural Training Institute (LFI).

"The aim is to support the nutritional education of children and young people and to strengthen their confidence in regional and seasonal food," it says. The farmers come directly into the classrooms, but shopping visits to Spar stores are also on the program, correcting some of the false images of the advertising industry. A new idea since last year is "Potted" - how a plant grows from a seed.