Tierwirt/in (Livestock Farmer)

Five Fachrichtungen under one qualification, and they range from industrial-scale dairy and poultry units to Schäferei — a subsidised, culturally protected occupation with a few hundred full-time practitioners, and one of the genuine edge cases in this repo.
Official title Tierwirt/in, with the Fachrichtung named
Protected title No
Category green (Grüne Berufe)
Typical qualification Duale Ausbildung, 3 years
Examining body Landwirtschaftskammer, or a state authority
Regulated No — but animal-welfare, medicine and hygiene law govern the work closely
Last reviewed 2026-09

The five Fachrichtungen

Fachrichtung What it is Outlook
Rinderhaltung Dairy and beef. Herd management, milking parlours and robots, breeding, feed Strong demand for qualified people, especially herd managers
Schweinehaltung Pig production Under severe structural pressure — see below
Geflügelhaltung Laying hens, broilers, turkeys. Large, integrated, technical Stable
Schäferei Shepherding, including transhumant Wanderschäferei Tiny, subsidised, culturally protected
Imkerei Beekeeping — honey, pollination services, queen breeding Very small as a full-time occupation

Rinderhaltung is the mainstream choice, and the one with a genuine employed career: large dairy units, particularly in eastern Germany, employ herd managers, milking specialists and calf-rearing staff on defined roles and shifts. It is the part of the green sector most like ordinary skilled employment.

Pig farming — the honest picture

German pig production has contracted sharply. Herd numbers and holdings have fallen year on year, driven by:

  • Tierwohl requirements — higher space and enrichment standards, the phase-out of conventional farrowing crates, and the Haltungsform labelling that has shifted retail demand. Conversion costs are large and often not financeable
  • African swine fever, which has restricted exports and imposed biosecurity costs
  • Falling domestic pork consumption
  • Succession failure at exactly the moment large investment is required

What follows for a worker: fewer, larger, more technical units, employing qualified staff rather than family labour. Qualified stockpeople are scarce, and the remaining businesses pay for them. But this is a shrinking sector, and the repo’s convention is to say so.

Schäferei — the edge case

A few hundred people in Germany herd sheep full time. The occupation survives because it is paid to exist: the grazing it provides maintains dykes, heathland, chalk grassland and orchards that have no other economic use, and conservation and agri-environment payments — including a headage premium for grazing livestock — are a large share of income.

  • Wanderschäferei — moving flocks along traditional routes — is recognised as intangible cultural heritage, which is a fair indication of how endangered it is
  • Incomes are among the lowest in this repo, hours are long, and the work is solitary
  • Wolves have made herd protection a permanent cost and a permanent political argument. Fencing and livestock guardian dogs are subsidised, and they are also work
  • Entry is realistic through the Ausbildung, and the shortage of qualified shepherds is acute

If you want it, it is available. Nobody should enter it expecting to be paid what the responsibility is worth.

What the work involves, across the Fachrichtungen

  • Feeding, health monitoring and breeding, increasingly with sensor and herd-management software
  • Medicine records and antibiotic reporting, which are legally mandated and audited
  • Animal welfare compliance under the Tierschutz-Nutztierhaltungsverordnung
  • Hygiene and biosecurity, which is not optional in pig and poultry production
  • Milking, lambing, farrowing, hatching — the parts that do not respect working hours
  • Machinery and building services — ventilation, feeding systems, slurry handling

Livestock work is every day of the year. Weekend and holiday rosters are part of the job in any unit large enough to have staff.

Pay

Market estimate.

Stage Gross/month
Qualified Tierwirt/in, employed €2,600 – €3,200
Experienced stockperson €3,000 – €3,700
Herdenmanager/in, large dairy unit €3,600 – €4,600
Tierwirtschaftsmeister / Betriebsleiter €4,000 – €5,200
Schäferei Substantially below all of the above; frequently self-employed and subsidy-dependent

Accommodation is often part of the package on livestock units, at statutory valuation rates.

Qualification and above

  • 3 years dual, examined by the Landwirtschaftskammer or state authority
  • Above it: Tierwirtschaftsmeister/in in the Fachrichtung, Agrartechniker, or a Bachelor in Agrarwissenschaften leading to breeding, advisory, feed-industry and veterinary support roles
  • Adjacent qualifications worth knowing: Klauenpfleger (hoof trimming) and Besamungstechniker (AI technician) are short, well-paid specialisms

Foreign candidates

  1. To work: no recognition required.
  2. For the visa: yes — Landwirtschaftskammer or state authority, not IHK FOSA.
  3. Language: B1–B2. Animal health, medicine records and machinery safety.
  4. Visa: §18a, §16a, or §26(2) BeschV.
  5. Livestock experience transfers well in substance — the animals are the same — but German documentation, medicine and welfare law is where equivalence assessments find the gap.
  6. Eastern Germany is where the employed jobs are, as in Landwirt/in.

Pitfalls

  • Choose the Fachrichtung with its outlook in mind. Rinderhaltung and Schweinehaltung point in opposite directions right now.
  • Livestock does not take holidays. Establish the roster before accepting.
  • Zoonoses and dust are the real occupational health issues — pig and poultry houses in particular, with respiratory protection obligations.
  • Schäferei is a vocation with a subsidy attached, not a career with an income.
  • Herd-management software and sensor systems are now the differentiator for pay. Learn them.

Sources

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