About Schafzucht

Schafzucht

Schafzucht is a German specialist magazine for sheep and goat keepers, published by the Eugen Ulmer Verlag of Stuttgart. Appearing twice a month, it presents itself as the magazine for sheep and goat enthusiasts, serving everyone from professional shepherds and commercial lamb producers to hobby smallholders. Its editorial program covers breeding, feeding, animal health, pasture and stable management, agricultural policy, and daily market prices, with six issues a year devoted specifically to goat keeping. The magazine is closely tied to the organized sheep farming associations, carrying dates and announcements from the VDL and BDZ, and it publishes the annual Schäfereikalender, the shepherd's calendar.

Overview

Schafzucht is published in two alternating formats: a full-color comprehensive magazine and a compact edition, Schafzucht kompakt, with current information, dates, and market data, together totaling twenty-four issues a year. That twice-monthly rhythm makes it one of the most frequently published agricultural specialist titles in Germany, reflecting the year-round decision cycle of livestock farming: breeding seasons, lambing, shearing, pasture management, and marketing each bring their own information needs.

The readership spans the full spectrum of small-ruminant keeping in Germany. Professional shepherds practicing migratory herding, fenced-pasture sheep farmers, landscape-conservation graziers who maintain heathlands and nature reserves with their flocks, dairy sheep and dairy goat operations, and hobby keepers with a handful of animals all find content aimed at their scale of operation. The magazine's self-description stresses that its tips and information on life with sheep and goats are indispensable both for the experienced fenced-pasture farmer and for the hobby keeper or the traditional wandering shepherd.

Content is organized around the practical realities of the holding. Standing topics include breeding and genetics, feeding and nutrition, animal health and hygiene, hoof care, fence construction, and shearing, alongside agricultural-policy developments, legal questions, farm portraits, and a comprehensive dates section. Market quotations keep producers informed on lamb and wool prices, and the association pages carry announcements from the Vereinigung Deutscher Landesschafzuchtverbände (VDL) and the Bundesverband Deutscher Ziegenzüchter (BDZ), the national organizations of the sheep and goat breeding associations.

History

Schafzucht is published by Verlag Eugen Ulmer of Stuttgart, one of Germany's oldest and most respected agricultural and horticultural publishers. The Ulmer house, founded in the nineteenth century, built its reputation on practical farming literature, and its livestock titles grew alongside the professionalization of German animal husbandry in the postwar decades. The magazine's editorial office operates from Niederkassel in North Rhine-Westphalia, while publishing management sits with Ulmer in Stuttgart.

The title developed into the central medium of the German sheep-farming community as the sector organized itself through the state breeding associations and their national federation. The partnership with the VDL and BDZ gave the magazine a quasi-official character: for many keepers, it is the channel through which association decisions, breeding-program news, show dates, and regulatory changes reach the farm. The annual Schäfereikalender, the shepherd's calendar published as a special, extends the brand into the yearly planning cycle of the trade.

Over the decades the magazine has tracked the transformation of German sheep keeping. The decline of wool as a primary income source, the rise of landscape conservation grazing as a paid ecological service, the growth of direct-marketed lamb, and the emergence of professional dairy sheep and goat operations have each reshaped the industry the magazine serves. Through these shifts Schafzucht has maintained its twice-monthly schedule and its practical orientation, a continuity that reflects the loyalty of a readership for whom the magazine is a working tool rather than leisure reading.

Coverage and Content

The editorial mix balances animal science with farm economics and rural policy. Breeding coverage explains genetic evaluation, ram selection, and the breeding programs of the state associations, while feeding articles address ration formulation for different production systems, from extensive pasture to intensive dairy. Animal-health topics range from parasite management and vaccination programs to lameness prevention and the hygiene requirements of milking operations, all written for implementation on the farm rather than the laboratory.

Practical craft knowledge is a hallmark: hoof trimming technique, electric-fence construction and maintenance, shearing preparation and wool handling, stable design, and predator protection, a topic of growing urgency as wolf populations expand in Germany. Farm portraits present working operations across the country, showing how different keepers combine production branches, direct marketing, agritourism, and conservation contracts into viable businesses.

Policy and markets coverage addresses the framework conditions of the trade. Agricultural-policy developments at the German and EU level, animal-welfare and transport regulations, subsidy programs for extensive grazing, and the economics of lamb and wool marketing are reported with the producer's perspective in mind. The market-price pages provide the current quotations that farmers need for selling decisions, and the dates section lists shows, sales, training courses, and association meetings. Six times a year, issues with a goat focus treat dairy-goat management, goat cheese production, and goat breeding in depth, acknowledging the distinct professional community of goat keepers.

Organization and Ownership

Schafzucht is published by Verlag Eugen Ulmer KG of Stuttgart, the specialist agricultural publisher whose portfolio includes leading titles in horticulture, agriculture, and animal husbandry. The magazine's advertising and editorial contacts operate from the Ulmer branch office at Uckendorfer Strasse 6, 53859 Niederkassel. The publisher's livestock and agricultural titles are sold alongside sister magazines covering fruit growing, garden construction, and the green retail trade.

The magazine's commercial model is the agricultural-press standard: subscriptions from farmers and hobby keepers, with a domestic annual subscription priced around 134 euros and reduced rates for students and trainees, supplemented by advertising from feed companies, animal-health suppliers, fencing and equipment manufacturers, and breeding organizations. The title is also available through digital kiosk platforms, extending its reach to readers who prefer electronic editions.

The institutional relationship with the sheep and goat breeding associations is central to the magazine's position. By carrying the associations' announcements and event calendars, Schafzucht functions as part of the sector's organizational infrastructure, a role that reinforces reader loyalty and gives the publisher a stable institutional readership base.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, schafzucht-online.de, presents the title as the magazine for sheep and goat keepers and carries selected content, subscription services, and information about the publication program. The site's topic keywords map the editorial universe: sheep, goats, milk, meat, wool, hides, landscape conservation, feeding, health maintenance, herding, pasture, stabling, lamb, fencing, and goat cheese.

Digital distribution extends through platforms such as United Kiosk, where the magazine is available both by subscription and as part of a digital newsstand flat rate covering more than a thousand German-language magazines. For a specialist title with a dispersed rural readership, digital availability matters: keepers in remote areas can access the compact edition's market data and dates without waiting for the post. The publisher's broader digital strategy for its agricultural titles includes online advertising formats and the Grüner Stellenmarkt job portal, which serves the green professions including livestock farming.

The Sheep Magazine's World

Schafzucht serves one of the most tradition-steeped yet economically pressured branches of German agriculture. Sheep numbers have declined over decades, shepherding as a full-time profession has nearly vanished in some regions, and producers face low lamb prices, rising costs, and predator pressure. At the same time, sheep have gained a new public role as landscape managers, maintaining the open heathlands, dikes, and nature reserves that mechanical mowing cannot economically sustain, and consumers have rediscovered regional lamb and sheep's-milk cheese.

A magazine that has accompanied this sector through its transformations carries a responsibility its readers feel personally: it must defend the economic interests of keepers while honestly reporting the structural challenges. Schafzucht's longevity in that role, its twice-monthly presence on the farmhouse table, and its integration with the breeding associations make it less a magazine about sheep than the printed commons of the German sheep-keeping community.