News

Pettenbrunn, Thalhausen, Viehhausen and Roggenstein: TUM conducts research into plant cultivation far beyond the borders of Freising and Munich. On May 27, 2025, Prof. Kurt-Jürgen Hülsbergen and the staff of the Chair of Organic Agriculture and Agronomy hosted the excursion to the research sites.

On May 21, 2025, the German Agricultural Society (DLG) honoured Hubert Spiekers with the Max Eyth Medal in Gold. He has been an honorary professor at TUM in the Department of Feed Science and Feed Preservation since 2013. He is Head of the Institute for Animal Nutrition and Feed Management at the State Institute for Agriculture (LfL) and Chairman of the DLG Working Group on Feed and Feeding.

Vertical farming can do more than lettuce. A research team headed by TUMCREATE, a research platform in Singapore, led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has investigated the cultivation of six food groups in vertical farming: Crops, algae, mushrooms, insects, fish and cultivated meat. In this study, the researchers show the positive effects of vertical farming on both yield and environmental impact and underline its role in future food security.

Crop robots, rhizosphere microbiome, animal nutrition – the 11th HEF PhD symposium showed the full range of agricultural sciences. Doctoral researchers and early postdocs from TUM, HSWT and LfL were invited to present their research and connect. Among eight presentations and 18 posters, the best talk, pitch and poster were selected.

The Bayerisches Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt reports on the information day in Grub on cow-bound calf rearing. Here, the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (HSWT) and the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL) presented the joint project “Cow-bound calf rearing on dairy farms in southern Germany - development of indicators of animal welfare and milk quantity”.

Research for theory and practice - from now on you can take a look at the Agri-PV plant in Dürnast. On 10 vertical rows with bifacial modules and 4 tracking rows, researchers can investigate the effects of agriphotovoltaic systems on soil, microclimate, economic factors and many other areas. We will report on specific research questions and results here.

A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has made a contribution to German animal welfare legislation with research into the pain sensation of chicken embryos: For animal welfare reasons, the destruction of eggs as part of the sexing of chicken embryos has been banned from the 13th day of hatching since 2024. The TUM researchers, including HEF member Prof. Benjamin Schusser, are awarded the Felix Wankel Animal Welfare Research Prize 2025 for this commitment.

Strengthening scientific cooperation, promoting the global agricultural community, developing new ideas - On March 6, 2025, the TUM School of Life Sciences and HEF welcomed a high-ranking delegation from Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU), a leading Chinese university in agricultural sciences. The participants report and explain what makes these exchanges so valuable.

When nitrogen levels are too high, for example due to excessive fertilization, plants become more susceptible to certain diseases. However, the exact reasons are not yet fully understood. A group of researchers involving the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now taken the first steps towards answering this question. They identified a small protein (peptide) that makes the plant resistant to certain bacteria. However, its effect is limited when there is a high nitrogen supply.

Construction of the agri-photovoltaic systems at the TUM research station in Dürnast began in early February. In the future, this will enable precise research into the interactions in areas with dual use for food and energy production.