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XtraBlatt Issue 02-2018

  • Text
  • Krone
  • Machinery
  • Forage
  • Straw
  • Farmer
  • Contractor
  • Dairy
  • Bales
  • Agricultural
  • Cows

ON-FARM THE DEHLWES

ON-FARM THE DEHLWES FAMILY, LILIENTHAL THE LOCAL VILLAGE DAIRY After the organic boom comes regionality: consumers want the chance of buying locally produced food in supermarkets. The Dehlwes family’s Bioland-certified village dairy in Lilienthal meets all requirements in this respect. This family farm dairy has a long tradition. The farming aspect was already established by the end of the 18th century under the name Therkorn. By the 1950s, the family farm had already established itself as milk collection point for the hamlet Trupe, Lilienthal. Even nowadays, the steading still features the traditional small coolhouse where the local milk was offloaded. Nowadays, 26

Nearly 10 m l milk is annually processed: about 30,000 l every day of the year. the Dehlwes family markets milk and milk products from eleven suppliers. Rapid growth means that the farm herd expanded to 280 cows in 2009. Bit by bit, land was rented so that currently 280 ha is farmed, comprising some 100 ha arable, 100 ha intensive grassland and 80 ha of support-eligible, extensive greenland where hay is cut and youngstock plus dry cows are grazed. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the married couple Gerhard (67) and Elke (63) Dehlwes manage farm and dairy with support from daughter Mareike Dehlwes (28) who brings her expertise as certified dairy master craftswomen and son-in-law Thomas Dehlwes (27) a certified master craftsman of agriculture. The farm and dairy employ a further 50 people in cropping, milking and processing, a demonstration dairy, farm shop, other services, workshop and farm office. ORGANIC VARIETY Almost 10 million litres milk is processed annually, around 30,000 l per day. In the farm shop customers can buy a whole range of products including fresh milk, different yoghurts, cream, creme fraîche, sour cream, butter, cottage cheese and slicing cheeses as well as quark. “Right now, we have introduced some more new yoghurts in our range”, reports Thomas Dehlwes happily, adding: “Soon cocoa milk will be added.” Alongside the dairy building is sited the cheese making plant. A speciality: it features a “glass wall” through which visitors in the farm shop can directly view the production under management of Mareike Dehlwes. “We want to create transparency for the consumers”, says she. On average, about 300,000 kg milk flows into the cheese making per year, representing some 3 % of total processed milk. “This figure could be easily doubled”, reports Thomas Dehlwes. “We’re really just beginning here. We produce five sorts of organic slicing cheeses flavoured by various herbs.” In the mid-nineties, Gerhard Dehlwes was encouraged by a crisis in the milk market caused by reports of E-Coli in unpasteurised milk to attend a seminar on conversion to organic milk production. He decided to change over. “Organic milk became popular and our business took a big step forward”, relates Thomas Dehlwes. “By the 2000s, demand for our milk was so great that we had to start buying-in from other farms. Our 180 cows weren’t enough.” Through active promotion of organic farming, Gerhard Dehlwes encouraged other farms to take the organic route. About every 18 months, the family dairy welcomed a further supplier from the region. FORAGE HARVESTING As well as Bioland-certified concentrate feed, the regulations of this organic farming organisation require at least 50 % of the ration to be forage, management that means pasturing of the herd or zero grazing with freshly cut clover/grass brought into the barn. With a cutting height of 8–9 cm, the clover/grass swards deliver five to seven cuts a year from beginning of May. 27