Daniela Winterter shoots her animals with a small-caliber rifle in the pastures where black-coated cattle have spent their entire lives. They live outdoors almost year-round on an area of 300 hectares. For example, a two-year-old bull is ready for slaughter.
Describing the shooting, the 45-year-old said, “It wasn't spectacular. “We have animals that are scheduled to be slaughtered in a small area in the barn, and then we go out and shoot them with a small-caliber pellet gun.”
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A stress-free livestock life
What helps most: The knowledge that the animals lived as free and healthy as possible. Attitude is natural. “There are no hours of transit in a cramped truck, no loading, and the cattle never see any unfamiliar surroundings. They are allowed to die where they were born and live. She is convinced that for her cattle, accustomed to freedom, “it is even more stressful when they are caught and loaded.”
Meat is almost always sold off the farm and the whole animal is used – the skin is sold to the car industry, the offal is used in dog food. But the main business is high reproduction, says Wintereder in an interview with noe.ORF.at. 200 young animals are born every year at the farm in Wildendürnbach. He sells breeding bulls throughout Europe. Prizes are regularly given to cattle.
Financial gain
This will make the company financially viable: “In Austria, we are in a position where farmers are very scarce, no matter what they do. For the business to be profitable, you need to be very innovative and very good at marketing. Logically it's profitable, otherwise we wouldn't be able to survive, but it's very versatile and time-consuming.” He also hires a meat-slicing machine and has a farm worker. Otherwise, it's all family work.
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What attracted you to breeding? “It's really looking at what you're mating, and after a year you see if it worked, and after two or three years how the daughters have grown, what kind of cows they've become,” says the “long-time winterer. Term business” where the invoice is always paid later.
“Not a farmer's child”
Although her family has no background in this area, she has always had an interest in all things agriculture. “I am not a farmer's child, but a complete career changer. Cattle, horses, farms – that was my dream life. It was surprising to have such a big farm. Wintereder owns 300 hectares of land, the pasture bordering the Czech state border.
At the turn of the millennium, he spent a few years working on cattle ranches in Canada and the United States — his business seemed small in comparison, he says. “There were so many inspiring and encouraging people, it was still a good network. It was a real motivation.” “Work can be done big, free and unconditional” in North America.
The breeding industry in Austria is dominated by men. “It's not common in Austria, but I think – regardless of whether it's a man or a woman – if you want to do something, you do it as much as you can, and it's not uncommon abroad for women to be great herders. It makes no difference.”
Sons will help
The family from Upper Austria came to North Weinviertel in 2002. Angus cattle are important. A neighboring company in Wildendürnbach was looking for an animal manure supplier within a short distance. The Wintereders bought 300 hectares with a historic farm and moved a few hundred animals. Since then there has been cooperation – animal manure in exchange for organic fodder and hay.
Daniela Wintereder lives here with her three sons. “The big one has been running for six months now. The two little ones are still students, but they all live there on weekends and holidays, and they are all enthusiastic farm boys from the bottom of their hearts,” he says. The 20-year-old son – like Winterter 20 years earlier – will go abroad for some time and work on several farms.
