Aufrufe
vor 5 Jahren

XtraBlatt Issue 02-2018

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

ON-FARM THE DREHER

ON-FARM THE DREHER FAMILY, OFTERDINGEN DIRECT SUPPLY The farm of Oberwiesachhof in Ofterdingen, Baden-Württemberg is an excellent example of home-produced direct supply: feed for the farm’s 200 head of cattle grows just a few metres from the cow barn and the milk sells straight to the consumer via vending machine on the other side of the yard. In other words: from field, through cow to consumer. A production chain where selling couldn’t be more direct! 48

The Dreher family in front of the farm shop. Here, unpasteurised milk from the herd is sold, but also e. g. potatoes, eggs and flour. It is an impressive outlook over Oberwiesachhof’s farmstead and fields. From a hillock can be viewed the farmyard, the calf house, cow barn, biogas plant, farm shop, the house and a fair acreage of verdant pasture. 2018’s drought seems to have made a detour around this region; the grass grows strongly, busy insects bumble … But the impression of ample moisture supply is not quite correct: “We’ve managed our usual number of cuts this year, but a few of them gave only half the yield”, explains farmer Karl Martin Dreher who runs Oberwiesachhof with wife Christel, son Michael and an employee. Production chains are indeed short here: pastures radiate just a few hundred metres around the farmstead. This saves time, is practical and efficient and isn’t coincidental. Some years ago, farmer Dreher swapped land with a neighbour. “The fields were more or less scattered before. Now, I have a compact block, and so has my neighbour. Soil quality and size of fields were something the same, letting us swap 1:1.” Relationship with the neighbour is good: Karl Martin Dreher harvests forage next door on a contracting basis when this is required. “The Krone EasyCut is in action with us anyway, and when labour is a bit tight on the next farm we’re happy to help out.” Despite high temperatures and the related lighter forage yields this year, this farmer hasn’t had to buy-in more feed than usual. “Most of our feed is home-grown, although protein and mineral feed come from the agricultural merchant.” Cropped are clover/ grass swards, lucerne, winter barley and forage maize. “Since we’ve fed clover/ grass and lucerne the milk production has increased markedly. Currently, we are managing lactations of a good 8000 kg and soon we could be achieving 9000 kg. For Fleckvieh that’s not bad at all”, smiles this farmer proudly. Milkers and dry cows get a ration of silage daily. The youngstock are fed grass silage and enjoy the occasional helping of salad leaves. Once older, beef bull calves get extra rations. With around 200 head of cattle, the Drehers have 70 dairy cows and 20 feeding bulls, all of them Fleckvieh. “This is the usual breed in this region with only a few farms grazing other types.” The farm produces 600,000 kg milk annually at 4% fat and 3.6% protein. No cows are bought-in. Instead, the trend is to sell dairy stock most years. FLEXIBLE WORK SHARING The farm covers 105 ha arable and 100 ha pasture land, 170 ha of this tenanted. “With us, there are seldom formal rental contracts. We’ve been farming the land for many years”, explains Karl Martin Dreher. On extensive pastures such as traditional meadows with scattered fruit trees growing on them, two cuts can be expected. With more intensively farmed fields as many as five cuts are harvested. “So far this year we’ve managed three cuts, although the third yielded around half the usual tonnage”, reports farmer Dreher, who graduated as agricultural master craftsman last year. Mowing features a Krone EasyCut. A 4-rotor Swadro 1400 is used on most areas. But where fields are too small the farm’s Krone 49