About BWagrar

BWagrar

BWagrar — the agricultural weekly of Baden-Württemberg — is the Landesbauernverband's (state farmers' association) farming newspaper, published weekly from Stuttgart. "BW agrar ist der gemeinsame Titel der beiden Wochenblätter des Landesbauernverbandes in Baden-Württemberg" — the joint title of the association's two weeklies, the BWagrar Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt and the BWagrar Schwäbischer Bauer: weekly current and informative content for agriculture and the farm family. Its roots reach to 1834 — the journal announced by King Wilhelm I of Württemberg after the great famine of 1817 — making it one of Germany's oldest agricultural publications. Since January 2026, the titles have been merged into the Baden-Württembergisches Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt, with BWagrar continuing as the regional edition.

Overview

The weekly serves Baden-Württemberg's farmers: the crop producers, the livestock keepers, the winegrowers, the fruit growers, and the farm families. The editorial program covers the agricultural year: the crop production (maize, cereals, special crops), the animal husbandry (dairy, pigs, poultry), the wine and fruit growing, the farm management, the agricultural policy, the markets, and the energy questions. The farm-family dimension — the "Landfamilie" — deserves its telling. The weekly addresses not only the farm manager but the whole farm household: the partner, the successor generation, the senior farmers. The "Aktuell und Informatives für Landwirtschaft und Landfamilie" — the current and informative for agriculture and the farm family — promises the household coverage: the farm management, the household, the rural life. The audio articles — the BWW+ contents as audio — serve the practical reality: the farmer listening in the tractor cab, the milking parlor, the workshop. The e-paper three days before print — the digital subscribers reading ahead — acknowledges the information speed the markets demand: the milk price, the grain quotation, the policy decision not waiting for the print cycle. The market reports — the current Marktdaten — give the business numbers: the farm as the enterprise navigating the volatile markets.

The weekly rhythm — the printed issue plus the e-paper three days before the print edition — structures the farm's information week. The digital subscription — the BWW+ articles as audio, the e-paper, the digital contents, the current market data — extends the reading into the audio and mobile: the farmer listening to the articles. The "Aktuell" and "Markt" offers — updated several times weekly — carry the fast-moving news between the weekly issues.

History

The 1817 founding context — the famine year — deserves its telling. After the great hunger of 1817, King Wilhelm I of Württemberg — the "King of the farmers" with his personal interest in agriculture — initiated the founding of an Agricultural Association (Landwirtschaftlicher Verein): for the revival and spread of agricultural industry and economic prosperity. The King also founded the Agricultural Festival (1817) — still held today as the Landwirtschaftliche Hauptfest — and announced a journal: first appearing in 1834. The Hohenheim connection — the agricultural science — deserves its telling. The 1817 association's founding — in close connection with the Agricultural Teaching and Research Institution in Hohenheim (later the Hohenheim Ackerbauschule, today's University of Hohenheim) — linked the journal to the agricultural science from the start: the research reaching the practice through the weekly's pages. The university — Germany's leading agricultural university, in Stuttgart-Hohenheim — remains the region's knowledge hub: the crop science, the animal science, the agricultural economics. The weekly's specialist articles — the new technologies and developments, the research findings translated for the practice — carry the science to the farms: the 1834 journal's mission continuing in the digital age. The LBV's service offerings — the milk exchange (Milchbörse), the consulting, the price quotations — complement the journalism: the association as the farmers' full-service organization.

The post-war farmers' associations — the Badischer Landwirtschaftlicher Hauptverband (1946) and the Württemberg associations — merged into the Landesbauernverband in Baden-Württemberg (LBV): the state's unified farmers' voice. The weeklies — the Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt and the Schwäbischer Bauer — served the regions: the joint BWagrar title unifying the brand. The 2026 merger — the three titles' combination — deserves its detailed telling. "Seit Januar 2026 wurden das Baden-Württembergische Landwirtschaftliche Wochenblatt, BWagrar Schwäbischer Bauer und BWagrar Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt zusammengeführt" — the consolidation creating the state's unified agricultural weekly. The rationale — "Eine größere, schlagkräftige Redaktion bündelt nun Wissen und Erfahrung" (a larger, powerful editorial team now pools knowledge and experience) — promises the readers more: the more thorough research, the deeper specialist articles, the carefully told reportages, the significantly broader topic variety, the new perspectives. The continuity — "ihr bestehendes Abo läuft selbstverständlich unverändert weiter" (the existing subscription continues unchanged) — reassures the subscribers: the weekly still arrives, the regional edition still carries the familiar BWagrar identity. The merger reflects the agricultural press's economics: the rising costs, the digital competition, the need for scale — the association press consolidating to sustain the journalism.

Coverage and Content

The editorial program follows the agricultural year. The crop-production coverage treats the arable farming: the maize (trimming for yield from the start), the cereals, the pest control (the western corn rootworm), the irrigation. The livestock coverage — the dairy (the automatic milking technology), the pigs, the poultry — addresses the animal keepers: the barn technology, the herd management, the markets. The special-crop coverage — the wine growing (tips and tricks), the fruit growing, the direct marketing — serves the southwest's specialties. The policy coverage — the CAP and the state programs — deserves its detailed telling. The GAP series — the articles on the Common Agricultural Policy in BWagrar and BBZ: the agrarian reform (issue 17), the conditionality (issue 18), the direct payments and eco-schemes (issue 20), the FAKT II area-based measures (issues 25-28) — translates the Brussels bureaucracy into the farm practice: the applications, the deadlines, the payments. The state programs — the Streuobst (orchard meadow) funding, the quality programs, the joint marketing — carry the Baden-Württemberg specifics: the state's agricultural identity (the orchards, the wine, the Black Forest farms). The MLR — the Ministry for Food, Rural Areas, and Consumer Protection — is the weekly's constant counterpart: the policy announcements, the funding programs, the regulations. For the farmers — navigating the subsidy jungle — the weekly's policy journalism is the survival guide: the money and the rules explained.

The market coverage — the current market data and market reports — gives the prices: the milk, the grain, the livestock. The energy coverage — the biogas, the photovoltaics, the farm energy — addresses the diversification. The Hauptfest coverage — the Agricultural Main Festival's eight days, 160,000 visitors (2026), the LBV as organizer — documents the industry's showcase: the modern, innovative agriculture presented to the specialist audience, the consumers, and the families.

Organization and Ownership

BWagrar is published by the Landesbauernverband in Baden-Württemberg e.V. (LBV), Stuttgart — the state's farmers' association. The weekly's editorial — the merged, larger newsroom since January 2026 — produces the Baden-Württembergische Landwirtschaftliche Wochenblatt with the BWagrar regional edition. The association's structure — the members, the districts, the specialist committees — feeds the journal: the policy positions, the market information, the events.

The business model follows the association-press pattern: the member subscriptions, the advertising (the agricultural technology, the inputs, the services), and the digital subscriptions (the BWagrar Digital-Abo, the BBZ-Abo). Detailed circulation and revenue figures are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is bw-wochenblatt.de — the BW Wochenblatt portal: the regional editions (BWagrar, BBZ), the BWW+ digital contents, the e-papers, the market data. The digital subscription — the 4-week trial at 8 euros — offers the BWW+ articles as audio, the e-paper three days before print, the digital contents, and the current market data and reports. The "Aktuell" and "Markt" sections — updated several times weekly — carry the fast news. The United Kiosk listing — the e-paper — distributes the digital weekly.

The digital strategy follows the association-press logic: the print weekly for the deep agricultural coverage — the crops, the livestock, the policy, the markets — the portal for the daily news and the audio articles. As Baden-Württemberg's agricultural weekly — since 1834, merged 2026 into the state's unified weekly with BWagrar as the regional edition — BWagrar remains the farmers' companion: the weekly current and informative for agriculture and the farm family — in print, e-paper, and audio.