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The seventeen-year-old cow Aura helped to shape the transition from suckler cow husbandry to the life farm.
Barbara EhrenspergerEditorial Green
“Our cow Aura gave birth to thirteen calves. As a ‘thank you’ we would have butchered her if she could no longer give birth, »says Selina Blaser (31) when visiting Blick im Hof above Bowil BE. Aura was the catalyst that turned the farm into a life farm – a home for animals until the end of their lives.
«Seventeen-year-old Aura then took care of a calf and was given a little more time – and so did I. Because I just wanted to talk to Adrian at this time, whether we don’t want to change to the Lebenshof, »the mother tells two daughters who are playing in the living room next door.
Husband Adrian (32) was skeptical, but he and his wife visited the Hofnarr organization in Hinteregg, Zurich. This supports farmers on their way to the Lebenshof.
“We were the talk of the village”
Adrian and Selina Blaser took over the farm from his parents in 2020. However, they were not full-time farmers. Adrian Blaser is employed part-time as an agricultural machinery mechanic and runs the farm alongside this activity. That made the changeover easier financially.
“Here in the Emmental, the people around us found it strange that we wanted to keep animals that are of no use,” she says. “We were the talk of the village!” The older generation in particular had trouble because they didn’t want to continue the farm traditionally. “It wasn’t and isn’t easy, but we found a viable way,” says Selina Blaser.
Implement new ideas
“Adrian and I want to show a new generation that it is also possible to live and work differently,” she says. Besides the animal shelter, they tried to grow chickpeas for a start-up that makes Swiss hummus.
“It didn’t work at all – the harvests were far too small,” reveals the 31-year-old straight out. “But we were able to harvest the pure spelled well in the autumn and we are now pursuing that,” she says. The trained gardener explains that the food, such as pure spelled flour or vegetables, is produced directly and not via an animal, which is incredibly motivating for her.
It is therefore not surprising that the family is more or less self-sufficient in terms of vegetables, flour and fruit. They enjoy eating vegan as a family – it happened gradually and not overnight. “That’s true for us,” she says. She definitely doesn’t want to proselytize.
Fifty animals on the farm
Around 50 animals live on the Kuherde farm: cows, sheep, pygmy goats, chickens, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and a turtle. It is so much more satisfying to give the animals a life: “We have a cow, an animal with soul and character and not just an ear tag number.”
They are currently receiving weekly inquiries as to whether they could still take in this cow or that pig or rabbit. “Unfortunately we have to cancel because we don’t have any more space,” says Selina Blaser. But she tries to ensure that these animals can be accommodated by other farms so that they can retire.
“It’s nice that a rethink is taking place,” she says happily – for herself and her daughters: “We want to pass on to our daughters that farming can be done in harmony, which means that we don’t want to make a profit from suffering from animals or nature».
120 francs per month for a rabbit
The changeover presented a new challenge: How do you find sponsors for the animals who will bear the costs? What has to be included in the costs for a sponsorship? And how to maintain Instagram and what does the platform help? Many questions that Selina Blaser had to answer all at once.
“The Hofjester association helped us enormously,” she says. For example, with the estimate of the cost of an animal. A full sponsorship (full subsistence including veterinary costs) for a cow costs 250 francs per month, for a rabbit 120 francs and for a chicken or a rooster 30 francs. However, partial sponsorships are also possible from CHF 10 per month.
A silo bale for the animals
Today, Selina Blaser shows on Instagram and on her website, which she manages, how the animals are doing and invites them to patent days. On these afternoons, all godparents are allowed to stop by, look at the farm and the animals and are entertained.
Apparently not only the godparents appreciate the Lebenshof, but also the other farmers in the Emmental. Still surprised by the nice gesture, Selina Blaser explains: “A farmer from the region came with a silo bale as a gift for our animals”.
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