Weideverein TAURUS e.V.

Verein zur Förderung naturschutzorientierter Beweidung

About us

The Taurus Pasture Society was founded in Marburg in 2002. The founders were a group of livestock owners (including heck cattle, backwoods cattle, horses, sheep and goats), environmentalists and other interested parties.

The Taurus Pasture Society has set itself the target of promoting new approaches to conservation, in particular the extensive use of grassland as grazing for large, once-native breeds of herbivore, as well as for old animal breeds, thereby enabling the uncontrolled natural development of large areas without land use pressure (more wilderness), thus demonstrating to a wider public the possibilities of natural development through the use of appropriate grazing systems.

The website www.weideprojekte-hessen.de has become a forum on pasture projects, in which information on the possiblities and limitations of year-round grazing can be obtained – from the operating costs of livestock husbandry and marketing opportunities to the development of areas and the reaction of individual populations of breeds relevant to nature conservation. Our goal is to build up an interested "grazing community" who are in constant touch with each other and who use this website as their information platform, continually extending and optimising it. This enables past experiences to be shared and possible mistakes in the establishment of grazing projects avoided.

Our goals are:
• The maintenance of existing habitats (nature protection) or the restoration of natural habitats (nature development) through the use of large grazing animals,
• Public relations (including our website)
• Initiation of research projects,
• consultancy and coordination in regional and nationwide grazing projects.

We want to
• preserve and develop conservation areas by the grazing of old breeds of domestic and undomesticated animals.
• promote the uncontrolled natural development of large areas without land use pressure (more wilderness)
• mediate between land users and conservationists.

We consciously avoid competition with existing farms. Rather we seek to build a partnership with farmers, involving them in our considerations from the outset.

Taurus's own projects:
We have initiated projects for conservation-oriented grazing and have been supporting them since 2002, largely in the area of Marburg-Biedenkopf, Germany:
• Arzbachtal; Cölbe; Heskemer Rohr; Magerrasen Amöneburg; Zwester Ohm I

Further projects:
• We have set up our own herd of heck cattle, which we want to steadily improve, in terms of breeding goals. For such projects, among others, sponsors and donors are of course welcome.
• Website www.weideprojekte.hessen.de
• In addition, our members serve on the advisory boards of various grazing projects.

Klaus Erber is the Vice President of the Taurus Pasture Society.

On request we can offer other net participants advice, give a presentation, and provide up-to-date information and contacts in the field of conservation-oriented grazing.