I’d Like It Freshly Ground!

Sustainable Feed Preparation at Brüninghoff

Instant coffee or freshly ground? Most people don’t need to think about it for long and would decide on freshly ground coffee from coffee beans. Quality and taste are what tip the scales here.

But what does this question have to do with Brüninghoff? The feeding methods that we use offer several advantages regarding ecological sustainability: we use fluid products in the form of whey and skimmed milk to produce our calves’ milk. Through the further use of these products there is no need to dry them, which would otherwise use up lot of energy. Even transport routes to the drying operations are unnecessary thanks to the further use of milk products. Above all, we are saving valuable groundwater as, unlike other companies, we do not use milk powder, because no product needs to be made into liquid again before feeding.

While with us, the calves are able to eat the roughage at all times and are fed with prepared calves milk, our competitors prefer milk powder. Our feeding methods with lots of roughage and a rationed amount of milk counts towards out nutrient-rich, healthy and even ecological rearing. In addition, we produce our calves milk ourselves. We take the fluid skimmed milk out of cream production and take the essential whey from the cheesemakers. Both components are mixed with high value vegetable fats and proteins and completed with essential vitamins, minerals and micronutrients. When putting this together, we constantly pay attention to the requirements and the age of the calves. Subsequently we give the milk to our farmers so that they do not need to worry about the composition of the milk and we can monitor and check the feeding method of the calves as closely as possible. Because the feed and the feeding methods are decisive for the quality of the veal.

Resource-saving production

In the matter of resource-friendly production, Brüninghoff relies on the energy produced in cogeneration units. Through the cogeneration process, when producing electricity a large part of the heat produced is usable energy. While electricity is produced for slaughter and dissection, the heat can be used to prepare warm water. In this way, the efficiency of the cogeneration unit is clearly higher than in conventional electricity production. The use of both types of energy leads to saving primary energy and therefore to the sustainable use of important resources. In terms of climate protection, the carbon dioxide released through the reduced fuel requirements is reduced (compared to separate production)..