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Elevated feed stalls with feeding place dividers allow cows to eat undisturbed, improve barn hygiene and reduce ammonia emissions. The structural and technical design of this feeding area varies in practice. The aim of the observations in 15 dairy farms with newly built or remodelled dairy barns was to shed light on the use of feeding areas in connection with the different structural and technical designs. An observation period outside the main feeding times was selected. It was found that in the period between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., the elevated feed stalls with partitions after every second feeding place were predominantly used by individual cows. The platforms were rarely soiled. Although the structural and technical designs were realised differently, there were only minor differences in terms of function. Further studies should be carried out to develop specific recommendations for the harmonisation of platform lengths and feeding table partitions, which are currently still lacking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A salient feature of the townscape of the university town of Siegen in Southern Westphalia is the Lower Castle, which is situated on the spur of a hill above the confluence of the rivers Weiss and Sieg. The construction of the baroque residence of the Protestant line of the house of Nassau-Siegen concluded three hundred years ago with the completion in 1721 of the 'Dicker Turm' tower, a mighty round archive tower. Drawing on surviving archives, the essay considers the architectural history of the castle with its three wings, which, after having been put to many other uses, now houses sections of Siegen University. The beginnings of the castle go back to the burial chapel planned by Prince Johann Moritz in the mid-17th century and to a gallery wing built to house his valuable collection of paintings. Above the burial chapel, another chapel, the Hofkapelle, was subsequently built, which was integrated into the corps de logis of the baroque castle. The castle, built between 1698 and 1721, is essentially the outcome of the restoration and expansion of a previous complex which had been destroyed by fire in 1695. The site of the Lower Castle had been occupied by a Franciscan monastery founded in the Late Middle Ages and dissolved at the time of the Reformation, as well as by middle-class houses, the remains of which have been excavated as part of archaeological research into the castle courtyard. The heyday of the residence was brief. In 1734, the Protestant branch of the Nassau-Siegen line came to an end, and in 1743 the territory of Nassau-Siegen passed to the House of Orange-Nassau, the ruling family of the Netherlands. Subsequently, the castle was used as an administrative centre. During the 19th century, the surviving buildings were reduced by demolition projects (for example of farm buildings and the gatehouse). The middle wing, which was seriously damaged by fire in 1915, was restored by 1921. The castle suffered one last blow to its fabric when the stables, which had been damaged during an air raid on Siegen on 16 December 1944, were demolished, as was the royal-tennis court. Together with Castle Oranienstein near Diez an der Lahn, which was originally built as a widow's residence, the Lower Castle at Siegen is among the baroque castle buildings belonging to the Orange branch of the House of Nassau which are of significance in terms of both regional and art history in the dynastic family's ancestral lands on the right bank of the Rhine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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