LFD Holding

Key takeaways

LFD Holding belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect LFD Holding to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of LFD Holding from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The LFD Holding is a German piglet production concern based in Genthin in Saxony-Anhalt. It is Germany's largest piglet producer and market leader. The company was founded in 2004 by Dutchman Adrianus Straathof as Straathof Holding GmbH. In 2014, it was renamed LFD Holding GmbH (LFD standing for Landwirtschaftliche Ferkelzucht Deutschland). In 2020, the company was sold to the Swiss-based investment and holding company Terra Grundwerte AG. The company has been repeatedly criticized for animal cruelty. In 2021, a major fire completely destroyed the piglet production plant in Alt Tellin.

History Adrianus Straathof began raising pigs in the Netherlands in 1973. In 2001, Dutch authorities took legal and police action against the farm due to animal cruelty and overcrowding in the stables. After that, Adrianus Straathof expanded to eastern Germany. At the end of 2004, Adrianus Straathof founded Straathof Holding GmbH based in Gladau as an umbrella organization for his various plants in Germany. The Straathof Holding GmbH also opened plants in Hungary.

The company became a pioneer of large-scale animal husbandry in Germany and one of the largest piglet producers in Europe. In doing so, the company repeatedly violated legal requirements and was legally convicted. At the Gladau plant alone, authorities imposed fines amounting to €2.1 million from 2005 to 2014. Subsequently, the company was subjected to protests from local residents, environmentalists as well as animal rights activists. After the investigative TV magazine Report Mainz reported on animal cruelty in December 2013 with video recordings by the animal rights organization Animal Rights Watch, a three-day raid by police and the public prosecutor's office took place at the Gladau site in 2014. As a result, in November 2014, the responsible district of Jerichower Land issued a nationwide ban on pig keeping and care against Adrianus Straathof, which was unique on this scale in Germany. After that, the concern was renamed LFD Holding GmbH on December 22, 2014. Adrianus Straathof initially handed over the management to an employee. Finally, on June 4, 2015, Adrianus Straathof announced that Christian Graf Brockdorff and the law firm Schultze & Braun would act as trustees of his ownership. At the same time, an advisory board was established, of which Adrianus Straathof became a member. On March 18, 2020, Adrianus Straathof sold the concern to the investor Terra Grundwerte AG, based in Switzerland and owned by Schleuniger founder Thomas-Andreas Martin Strehl. Terra Grundwerte AG in turn appointed the Lindhorst Group based in Winsen an der Aller for the operational management. In fiscal year 2020, revenue amounted to €106.873 million, of which roughly 94% (€100.543 million) were generated in Germany and 6% (€6.33 million) in other European countries. A major fire on March 31, 2021, completely destroyed the piglet production plant in Alt Tellin, resulting in losses of around 20% in the concern's piglet production capacity. The public prosecutor's office estimated the damage at around €40 million.

Structure The concern keeps sows and produces piglets. The operation of the individual plants is carried out through 14 subsidiaries. The animal stock in the parent farms is 55,000 sows, with which 4000 piglets are produced per day. The piglets are sold to fattening companies in Germany and Europe, some are fattened in the concern's own fattening plants. For the trade and transport of the animals, the concern cooperates with the Venneker group. With regard to the genetics of the animals, the concern cooperates with the pig breeding company Hypor, a subsidiary of one of the world's largest animal genetics groups Hendrix Genetics.

Controversies

Animal cruelty The company has been repeatedly criticized for animal cruelty. The animal rights organization Animal Rights Watch has published footage from inside the company's stables on several occasions, causing public criticism. Consequently, the company has been subjected to restraints and fines by authorities. One major criticism concerned the brutal killings of piglets. In December 2013, Report Mainz reported that piglets were systematically beaten to death in plants of the company in a manner that violated animal welfare. Official police evidence videos from 2014 documented piglets being brutally killed in the carcass box. In 2019, Report Mainz as well as Der Spiegel published footage in cooperation with Animal Rights Watch, which again showed brutal killings of pigs. An employee was subsequently fired and the plant manager was issued a warning. Another major criticism concerned the company keeping sows in gestation crates too narrowly so that the animals had far too little space. The German Federal Administrative Court ruled that the company's practices were illegal and violated animal welfare.

Technical deficiencies and operational problems

In April 2017, a technical failure led to a fire at the piglet production plant in Kleindemsin, the approximately 260 sows housed there died and damages of €2 to 2.5 million were incurred. In July 2018, a technical defect led to a fire at the piglet production plant in Gladau, the resulting damage was estimated at €250,000. In August 2019, there was a leak of high-percentage sulfuric acid at the piglet production plant in Alt Tellin. Later the same month, more than 1,000 piglets died in Alt Tellin due to the failure of a ventilation system. In March 2021, a major fire finally destroyed the entire piglet production plant in Alt Tellin consisting of 18 stables, only 1300 of the 51.000 penned sows and piglets survived. The company was accused of having accepted the death of the animals in case of fire and of not having taken sufficient fire precautions.

References

External links

Official website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with LFD Holding

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what LFD Holding claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to LFD Holding before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about LFD Holding ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of LFD Holding

In research: LFD Holding appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses LFD Holding in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: LFD Holding is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies based in Saxony-Anhalt, German companies established in 2004, Intensive farming, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for LFD Holding outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study LFD Holding in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what LFD Holding means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain LFD Holding out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is LFD Holding in simple terms?

The LFD Holding is a German piglet production concern based in Genthin in Saxony-Anhalt. It is Germany's largest piglet producer and market leader.

Why does LFD Holding matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study LFD Holding?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on LFD Holding.