4 Rotational grass leys with clover in the mix are important feed sources on many Danish dairy farms. 6 TITLE THEME PASTURE MANAGEMENT: DENMARK SUCCESSFUL DESPITE FERTILISER LIMIT 7 The drive from the border crossing Padborg northwest through south Jutland in September presents a very clear picture: the forage maize looks extremely promising, nurturing hopes of an above-average harvest. “Compared with Germany, the maize here in the high north is normally not so tall, but this year the crop is truly glorious”, enthuses Dan Hamann, managing director of the Brøns Group, the headquarters of which I’m visiting in the small community of Brøns, situated directly on the western Jutland coastline. Among other things, he’s exclusive importer for Krone and Amazone in Denmark. Servicing around 20 regional dealerships, he and his 30-strong team also support Danish farmers in machinery sales, service and advisory input. Quite apart from this year’s forage, Danish dairy farmers currently find themselves in a pretty good position at the moment, reckons Dan Hamann. A glance at national statistics shows cow numbers had dropped to around 525,000 head by the middle of the present decade. But now, post-quota, they’re heading up again. Present cow population in Queen Margrethe’s realm tops 575,000. On the way down, on the other hand, is the number of farms. By 2017, those keeping milking cows had slipped below 3,000. Danish pig farms number less than 2,300. The figure for all farms is put at a good 34,700 for the same year – almost 20% less than in 2010. “Based on the average size of dairy farm generally accepted as viable for the future, enterprises nowadays need some 300 ha of farmland or 300 cows, points out the Krone importer. “This is double the size thought to be required back in 2010. And the tendency indicates this trend will continue.” STOCKING RATE But what’s behind such drastic changes in structure? To take a closer look at this development, we visit farmer Niels Laursen at Ribe, some 15 km north of Brøns. On around 450 ha of ring-fenced arable and pasture land, including 220 ha owned, he runs 420 cows plus followers, a total of 800 head standing in two barns about 1 km apart, the result of buying a neighbouring farm a few years ago. While showing us around, Niels Laursen reports yield average at around 10,900 kg, fat 3.8.% protein 3.4%. Milking is per robot two to three times daily, depending on yield. His stocking rate allows this farmer to apply all produced manure on his own land. He’s not alone in this, reports Erik Helbo Bjergmark, who has joined our discussion. He works for the Seges agricultural advisory organisation in On some 450 ha farmland, Niels Laursen grows around 100 ha of mainly rotational grass pasture. In Germany the intensified Fertiliser Ordinance still hangs like a dark cloud over the country’s agriculture. But Danish farmers have already navigated the storms involved and by now have 20 years’ experience of pasture management under “nutrient input limits”. XtraBlatt travels north to discover how they manage. 20 INFORMATION Especially important among the core attributes of the self-loading forage wagon is high-performance contamination-free uptake of forage feed and best possible chopping performance. This is why pick-up knives and rotor are central work tools, needing optimum adjustment and careful maintenance. Basically, the camless EasyFlow pick-up is low-maintenance. But the tines and drive line should nevertheless always be checked for wear and tear in the annual pre-season once-over. Directly behind the pick-up is the cutting rotor, feeding the crop through into the wagon interior. The blades and the position of the feeder rotor tines are so arranged that the crop is reliably fed through the blades for precise, scissor-action clean cuts without tearing or smearing the forage. Important: before season start the gap between scraper and rotor must be checked. In fixed position, this should be fixed precisely at 25 mm. A further “checkpoint” is the chain and slat conveyor of the forage wagon. For a breakdown-free season this should be in optimum condi- PRACTICAL TIPS SEASONAL CHECK SELF-LOADING FORAGE WAGON 21 tion. Look over the chains and supporting cogs for wear, and check tension and functionality. KNIFE BLADES ….should be sharp! Depending on estimated throughput, forage wagon knives should be sharpened at least once daily, or twice if need be. The optional SpeedSharp system gives automatic sharpening of all knives. The system is mounted on the wagon and therefore always in-place and ready for action. The knife bar is hydraulically swung out for sharpening and then reinserted into the crop feed channel. The grinding discs are arranged on a hydraulically-driven shaft which can be moved sideways. In each case every second blade in an entire knife group is ground simultaneously with the remaining blades then sharpened in the same way. The forage wagon sharpening system also offers the advantage that knives can be sharpened if required at any time with no need to wait until the day’s work is finished. PRACTICAL TIPS SEASONAL CHECK SELF-LOADING FORAGE WAGON Time is money – this applies especially in the forage harvest. Here, self-loading forage wagons have a central role, which is why they have to work without breakdowns and deliver A1 quality. To ensure this, a general check before season start is crucial – as is daily servicing. XtraBlatt gives the best tips in this respect. The knife sharpening system on the forage wagon offers the advantage that cutting action can be improved with an extra sharpening operation in the middle of field operations. The Scherrhof recipe is very simple: Good cows give good milk. And good milk makes good cheese. With their demonstration dairy plant in Tirol, the Walch family members not only create their own cheese: they ensure a secure future for their farming business. 24 INTERNATIONAL THE WALCH FAMILY, KIRCHBERG (A) GOOD MILK – GOOD CHEESE there around every ten days but employ a manager to look after the day-to-day business.” Back to Tirol. As we drive back with Hans Walch to the family’s Scherrhof farm in the three kilometres distant suburb of Spertendorf, we find the barns sparkling clean, but with not a cow to be seen. “It’ll be next weekend before the livestock arrive back from the herd’s summer grazings up on the mountainside alms”, explains the farmer. “They’ve been up there since mid-May. We have a lower and an upper alm with the first at 1,140 m altitude and the latter running from 1,640 to 2,000 m above sea level. We drive down the cattle end of September and link this occasion with a festival in front of the hotel. In this way we offer guests in our region, and the locals as well, a further tourist attraction.” DEMONSTRATION DAIRY This means the cattle spend the entire summer in the hills at the foot of the Großen Rettenstein. “We take all our 60 milking cows and followers up”, says Hans Walch. “Calving is mainly in autumn, ideal for us being October/November. This lets the cows take full advantage of the fresh spring alm pasture growth. If the feed starts to be used up, then the cows are anyway in the later stage of their lactation by that time or are already dry. Earlier, our family kept Pinzgauer cows. But then my father changed to the Fleckvieh breed. These cattle suit the region very well and they’re more profitable because the male calves attract good prices.” The Walch family breeds for a not-too-large framed type of Fleckvieh with a little Red Holstein influence added, and aims for udders that milk out well. Almost all the summer milk is made into cheese – around 100,000 l produces some 10 t of Austrian “Bergkäse” or mountain cheese, with additional lots of Tilsit, soft cheese, Kirchberg in Tirol, only a few kilometres from the world-famous Kitzbühel holiday resort. We’re sitting in the bar of the Elisabeth Hotel. The barman brings coffee. We’ve come to meet hotelier and farmer Hans Walch. He and his wife once took over the parental guesthouse and from it have created a modern 200-bed 4-star Superior hotel with spacious wellness department. And their farming business is fit for the future too. “Actually, I passed the farm in Kirchberg, Scherrhof, over to my son a while ago”, explains Hans Walch. “He completed his agricultural studies some ten years ago. As we then got down to planning the development of the farm, it became quickly clear that we’d have to add extra value to the milk to increase return on capital. So we built our own cheese production plant.” TWO FARMS Hans Walch also owns a farm over in Hungary. The idea for this germinated during a holiday stay in Loipersdorf near the Hungarian border. “I was so captivated by the conditions that I felt like undertaking something agricultural there too”, he states. “All at once, a suitable farm came up for sale and I grabbed the chance. That was in 1991. There, I run 350 Holstein dairy cows with around the same number of followers. Average yield is 8000 kg with milking through a new 2x16 herringbone parlour. Surrounding farmland totals some 600 ha including 520 ha owned. We grow a lot of green rye and feeding barley plus some 130 ha wheat, 30 ha triticale and 15 to 20 ha oats.” The latter crop is for horse feed because Hans Walch keeps a few trotter breeding mares as a hobby. The horses are all served naturally in France, the foals reared in Hungary and then sent back to France as yearlings for sale and training for the racetrack. “On the farm we have 16 workers”, continues the farmer. “I’m over 25 AGRICULTURE’S FUTURE “IT WON’T COME FROM THE SHOP CASH-REGISTER” 32 INTERVIEW Farming finds itself pulled between the market on the one side and the demands of society plus political regulations on the other. Is there a way ahead that can please everyone? In the XtraBlatt interview, DLG president Hubertus Paetow maps out his route for the demanding road ahead. AGRICULTURE’S FUTURE “IT WON’T COME FROM THE SHOP CASH-REGISTER” Without a doubt, discussions on nitrate pollution of ground water are currently among the hottest subjects in the farming sector, along with designation of “red” protected areas, fast changing intensification of the Fertiliser Ordinance and the grappling between Brussels and Berlin for the “acceptable” political solution. But how are things seen from the farming sector? What can, and what must, be contributed by agriculture in this respect? And in end-effect, who’s to pay the costs of all the requirements? Hubertus Paetow, arable farmer with pig feeding units in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and president of the German Agricultural Society (DLG) since 2018, has clear opinions on the above questions. XtraBlatt met him in summer on the fringe of the DLG Unternehmertage in Magdeburg, an event also dedicated to discussing agriculture’s future. XtraBlatt: Herr Paetow – how should we react to the present intensification of the Fertiliser Ordinance from a practical farming point of view? Hubertus Paetow: From a purely crop growing aspect, we in our farm have come to the conclusion that we can rub along with it relatively well. Mind you: this is on the basis of the 2017 Fertiliser Ordinance variant valid until summer 2019. The next step will depend upon how strongly politics turns the thumbscrews in the red areas, irrespective of whether the basis is nitrate or phosphorus. But things are completely different if seen from the perspective of a farm, in Westphalia for instance, that has expanded its pig production enterprise as far as permissible under the existing legislation regarding available application area, possibly with a little slurry transported off the farm. This enterprise is naturally very susceptible under the 2017 Ordinance or that being presently discussed. Even now, between 18 and 20€ /m 3 slurry is being paid, alone for carting it off the farm. Pigs can’t be fed profitably under this situation. From the DLG outlook, my comment on nitrate problems must be: negotiations are definitely needed in some regions, but we 33 VITA HUBERTUS PAETOW Hubertus Paetow, born 1967 in Schleswig-Holstein and trained there as farmer. Following study in agricultural science at Göttingen and Kiel Universities, he managed an arable farm near Kiel. Since then, he’s farmed in his own right at Finkenthal-Schlutow (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) with main enterprise arable including seed production. Alongside other office bearing positions in societies and in local politics, Hubertus Paetow was vice-president of the DLG and chairman of the DLG Test Center since 2015. In 2018, he became DLG president. 42 KNOWLEDGE ORGANIC FARMING If German consumers were to source their groceries from mainly organically-grown supplies, then – with the same consumption – around 40% more farmland area would be required compared with “conventional production”. BUTTER PRICE In 1914, 1 kg butter cost approx. 2.85 Reichsmark (RM) while average daily earnings of a farmworker lay at 2.40 RM. If the price: wage relationship nowadays was the same as 100 years ago, butter would then cost around 129 €/kg or 32.25 € for the standard 250 g packet. That the price in reality is now only 1.80 €/packet is alone due to the efficiency of modern agriculture. 82 FOOTBALL FIELDS/ DAY CO2 STORAGE Within the EU, around 51 billion t CO2 equivalents lie stored in farmland topsoil. In comparison: total annual emissions of CO 2 equivalents run at around 4.4 bn t. CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 CO2 LAND LOSS Every day in Germany around 58 ha of open land is taken over for buildings and roads. That represents an area reutilisation of around 82 soccer pitches every day. FACTS & FIGURES Agriculture currently faces multiple criticisms. But less well known and seldom communicated are the huge contributions made to society and the environment by this professional sector. 43 GREENHOUSE GASES Since 1990, the reference year of the Kyoto Protocol, German agriculture succeeded in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions from around 79.4 m t to 65.2 m t CO 2 equivalents. This represents a reduction in emissions of 18 %. Through alterations in land use, remedial action in the forestry sector and, above all, using bioenergy (solid biomass, biofuels, biogas), it‘s been possible to reduce emissions in 2016 by an additional amount of more than 75 m t C0 2 equivalents. WEED CONTROL While in the 1950s, for example, average application amount of herbicide necessary for satisfactory control equalled over 1 kg active ingredient per hectare of crop, nowadays often only 10 g/ha is sufficient for adequate control. COSTS FOR ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION PER HECTARE The HFFA Research Institute calculates in a study that the main EU livestock production standards and regulations for cross compliance, as well as for protection of water, soil and air involve costs for German agriculture of around 5.3 bn € or 315 €/ha. Only around 1.2 bn € or 69 €/ha of the respective costs would be incurred if farming took place under weather conditions comparable to those experienced in important competitor countries outside the EU. With that, and in an open market, German farmers have a competitive disadvantage compared to their opposite numbers of 4.1 bn € or 246 €/ha. EU Non-EU 2019: 10 g/ha 82 FOOTBALL FIELDS/ DAY FOOD INDUSTRY The German food industry with its turnover of some 179.6 bn € (2018) and over 600,000 employed in more than 6,000 production plants, is the fourth-largest industry sector in Germany. In comparison: the German car industry employs some 820,000 people. 6,000 PRODUCTION PLANTS 180 BN € TURNOVER/YEAR 600,000 EMPLOYED CO2 CO2 1950: > 1 kg/ha 12 PASTURE MANAGEMENT: THE NETHERLANDS ONLY QUALITY COUNTS In the Netherlands, just as in Denmark, strict regulations for environmental and ground water protection have been imposed for years now. We learn from Voorst-based agricultural contractor Erik Morssink what this means in day-to-day farming, in particular for grassland management. TITLE THEME 13 PASTURE MANAGEMENT: THE NETHERLANDS ONLY QUALITY COUNTS The Dutch name “Achterhoek” translates literally as “the back of beyond” and describes a region of attractive countryside directly bordering Germany. Seen on the map, it’s situated within an east-facing bulge in the borderline between the towns of Emmerich and Vreden. And those coming from Anholt in Germany with the aim of visiting the Morssink family’s van Hal agricultural contracting company in Voorst, for instance, need to take a second glance before learning from traffic signs and registration plates that they’ve actually crossed the border. Achterhoek and surrounding regions stretching right to Arnhem and Zwolle are areas with very high densities of cattle, pigs and poultry, directly comparable with German Münsterland to the west. Resultant intensive applications of manure in the past had a considerable effect on the environment until the Dutch government set a course against the practice with a series of strict regulations. There were naturally consequences for the region’s farmers, as reported by contractor Erik Morssink. “Without a doubt, intensity of livestock production has been reduced although, so far, only in the form of stocking rates reduced. There have been few cases of farms entirely given up and I hope that it never comes to this. After all, we earn a good 60% of our turnover from agricultural contracting work. An important role in ensuring the continued survival of individual farms will be played by how the respective regulations are applied in practice.” Agricultural contractor Erik Morssink: “An important role in ensuring the continued survival of individual farms will be played by how the respective regulations are applied in practice.” 55 AGRICULTURAL CONTRACTOR MICHEL MAUREL, SAINTE-COLOMBE, FRANCE COMFORT- BALING Around 12,000 km are annually covered on the roads by Michel Maurel with his balers. He owns Enterprise Agricole AR based in Sainte-Colombe and concentrates on baling work, so his requirements regarding performance are very special. 44 INTERNATIONAL TRIO GROUP, LIPEZK, RUSSIA A LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE One of the farms that the film crew calls on during the one-week research trip belongs to the Trio Group. Founded in 1997, this company farms 90,000 ha on several locations around the city of Lipezk in the Oblast of the same name. The farm we visit, some 460 km south of Moscow, covers 19,000 ha, all of it cultivated without ploughing or use of powered implements. The long-year average precipitation is some 400 mm, so irrigation is necessary. Around Straw bale collection on the huge fields is a challenge. The logistics have to work. Krone and editorial staff from profi magazine travelled together into the Russian “black earth belt” to film for a video DVD. Part of the itinerary involved visiting a farm in the Lipezk region. Impressions of a huge country. 45 2,500 ha has irrigation circles in position and these apply an additional 350 mm, although only potatoes and sugar beet are irrigated. Also in the rotation: winter and spring barley, winter wheat, forage and grain maize with grass and rye grown as seed multiplication crops. Peas, lucerne and white cabbage round the cropping off. Potato yield on this farm is around 40 t/ha with almost all ware delivered to crisp manufacturer Frito-Lay (PepsiCo). Year-round storage capacity is on hand for 30,000 t ware potatoes. The crop is an important earner for Trio, contributing around 6% of the firm’s turnover. HIGH NVESTMENT Sugar beet is a similarly important crop for the Trio Group here. The company has its own sugar factory with over 100 m € invested at the location in recent years to boost processing capacity to a daily 10,000 t beet. Additionally, energy efficiency of the plant has been improved and losses reduced. The harvest from 24,000 ha of sugar beet is processed here. Long-term aim is a pure sugar yield of 7 t/ha. This is still being worked towards, but quality targets have already been reached: Coca-Cola buys a good proportion of the output for production of caffeine-content refreshment drinks. West European and American makes predominate in the machinery fleet, which has had 25 m € invested in it over the last years, TRIO GROUP, LIPEZK, RUSSIA A LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE SCHREINER MASCHINENVERTRIEB PARTNERS AT EYE-LEVEL 52 PARTNER One family, three generations, four locations and a highly- motivated team of 89 committed staff – this is the Schreiner concern in Steffenberg. Customer orientation, competence and specialisation on just a few machinery makes are focal points. Meanwhile, substantial investment forms the basis for further expansion. A t first glance, the architect’s plan on the wall is unspectacular: a plain workshop hall with 25 x 13 m floor area and a height of 8 m with mono-pitch roof and four big doors. Nevertheless, it represents something special for the farm machinery dealership Schreiner with main office in Hessian Steffenberg-Niedereisenhausen, as explains Gerhold Schreiner who manages the company together with his brother Arno. “This hall will stand behind our present workshop and be mainly reserved for Krone machinery, be it for pre-delivery servicing of new machines or for repairs. It’s so designed that trucks can drive in at the front and come out again at the back, which will enormously ease the logistics on the premises.” At this moment the senior head and company founder, Helmut Schreiner, comes into the office. With his 82 years of age, he looks as fit as ever and is still active in the business: “Helping where it’s needed”, as he formulates it. At this moment, he’s bringing good news: the architect had called announcing last arrangements for the foundation work are agreed so that, in principle, work can now start. A good excuse for a closer look. On the way over, relief that the decision had been at last reached is voiced. The fact is that the company has hardly ever stopped expanding over more than five decades: a process mirrored in the building extensions and in the situation where space on the site for further development is very scarce indeed. “We’re all the happier that we have indeed won permission for further building”, adds Gerhold Schreiner. HIGH INVESTMENT Back in 2012, this same situation encouraged the family business to buy a 3000 m 2 building complex in the same community. Now this “workshop 2” is reserved for material handling machinery. Again in Niedereisenhausen, but this time in 2015, a 4,700 m 2 hall was bought and named “workshop 3” and this has become the site for large-scale machinery. Alongside farm machinery from Deutz-Fahr and Krone as main manufacturers, companies such as Marlo represent an important support in the form of material handling and industrial machinery. “Especially the large roto telescopic loaders with up to 20 m reach need a lot of room when being serviced”, mentions Niclas Schreiner, who has also joined the discussion. He and his brother Jonas are third generation Schreiners in the company, whereby Niclas sees his strengths in sales and Jonas concentrates on management, control and order processing. Regarding the specialist firm as most important interface between manufacturer and customer: (r. to l.) Gerhold, Jonas and Niclas Schreiner, Thomas Märte (sales). 53 16 ON FARM FARMER HEIKO BERBALK, WALDEMS THE EPICURE’S “A truck has never been loaded-up with slaughter lambs here on my farm”, emphasises Heiko Berbalk. Together with his wife Katja, he farms sheep on Hof Berbalk, selling high-quality lamb direct from the yard, or at a number of farmer markets. ARK 17 Annually, every German citizen consumes around 60 kg meat. The proportion produced from sheep is relatively small, at a mere 600 g. The reasons behind such low consumption are not only related to traditional eating habits, they also have a lot to do with availability. Meat direct from the sheep breeder is mostly only available as whole or half lamb carcasses. Those wanting individual cuts find them mainly in the deep freeze cabinets of supermarkets, imported from New Zealand. While it’s a fact that consumption of lamb slowly, although continually, increases in countries such as Germany, this progress is mainly due to farms like Hof Berbalk at Waldems-Wüstems in the Taunus Hills some 40 km from the centres of Frankfurt or Wiesbaden. This is because such enterprises have product-quality firmly in their own hands: during sheep production, in the slaughter and processing of the meat and, above all, in the direct customer contact. HOBBY AS CAREER Heiko Berbalk’s parents owned some farm animals – poultry and goats – more as a hobby than anything else. He himself trained in gas and water plant installation, gaining his master-craftsman certificate in this trade. The late 1990s found him working in Austria. But after a year abroad he felt the pull of home and farm where the sheep flock by this time had grown to 400 ewes. Heiko Berbalk restarted his lifework from the ground up: first came certification in farm animal production with specialist subject sheep husbandry, four years later he passed the master examination. Immediately after taking-over the family farm he initiated a major building project: a barn for 600 ewes, most of them the white fleeced blackface Rhön sheep, a rare native breed, and one of the oldest in Germany. “My parents had already started breeding the medium-framed Rhön”, reports the sheep farmer. “I think the Rhön is the best breed for my farm here. While they’re not meat production specialists, they’re robust and self-sufficient – ideal for the sort of countryside we have here.” Although Heiko Berbalk loves tending his animals, the dayto-day work with the sheep is mostly left to his shepherd Jaak. Running with the flock are 40 brown fell sheep and the same number of Boer and Thuringian goats. The fell sheep and goats are mainly included for grazing-down undergrowth, thus protecting pastureland. Annual housing is for just 100 days in straw-bedded courts, starting January with shearing carried out just a few days after housing. LAMBING Although Rhön sheep breed year-round, most lambs arrive in late winter/early spring. At that time, care is 24/7 with the other two farm hands, Karsten and Marcel, helping too. “Every additional lamb that we manage to rear is important for us,” says Heiko Berbalk. “For this reason, we try to always have someone on duty, looking out for any complications and seeing that the newborn animals start suckling.” Each ewe with offspring is kept in individual pens post-partum to encourage bonding and so that inspection is easier. Later, the animals move into larger groups. The farm covers 160 ha including around 90 ha for forage harvesting, mostly single-cut with aftermath grazed. “This year, grass growth was so good that we definitely covered all our forage needs with the one mowing. We ARK 28 INFORMATION PEOPLE IN KRONE TEAM PLAYER 29 Maximilian Fritz works with Krone in windrower assembly and since springtime is also a member of the eSport group. The group now plays among the leaders in the international “Farming Simulator League” – a world of its own. A storm of applause breaks out – then a collective gasp from the crowd. Spellbound, the onlookers follow the game before them, transmitted onto a wide screen while two commentators accompany the action with a running report. But this is no light athletics world championship or federal league football game. The focus of the fascinated thousands in the hall or at home on the TV screen is directed instead on the live tournament of the “Farming Simulator League”, in short FSL, during the “Zurich Game Show 19”. And in the hardfought competition to find the fastest harvest operatives, one team has just suffered a disappointing setback. This FSL tournament is the third from a total of nine taking place during the first league season between July 2019 and July 2020. HARD TRAINING But what lies behind all this? “Base and starting point is the PC game “Farming Simulator” that has been a favourite for some time now. However, within the FSL it has been extended in 2019 to become a high-quality eSport component”, explains Maximilian Fritz. He works for Krone at Spelle in the windrower assembly and since this spring is member of the Krone eSport team, together with Frederic Leifeling, Sascha Straub, Martin Potzmader, Lukas Steurer and Andreas Beisswenger. “In the current FSL tournament, teams of three players compete within a classical KO system featuring eighth, quarter and half finals through to the end game. These can be so-called wildcard teams but also involve seeded teams that have a general right to be included at the start of the big tournaments”, he continues. Of these seeded teams there now play just under a dozen in the FSL, all of them supported by manufacturers in the agricultural sector: Krone, for example. “Our eSport group was founded this spring. There was an announcement in the firm and I spontaneously put my name forward”, continues Maximilian Fritz. In total, six people are in a team. And such a constellation allows two teams of three to play against each other in training. Training here doesn’t really mean sweat-soaked exercise bouts on the tartan track. In reality, eSport practice takes place at the PC. “But this is still an enormous challenge. We train for a few hours at least twice a week and over the weekends, too, before tournaments. After all, eSport demands real effort. If you want to be good, you’ve got to practice hard.” NEW EMSLANDER In the Krone eSport group he’s the only member from the factory assembly and is visibly proud that he can participate. This has not only to do with his general hobby of computer games but has also some connection with his career “arrival” in Spelle. Originally, Maximilian Fritz comes from the small community Ketzin near Potsdam. There he trained as commercial vehicle mechatronics technician. The firm he worked with during his apprenticeship couldn’t take him on at the end of his course. So he quickly accepted the offer of a contract firm in 2011 to start work with Krone in its Spelle factory. His first job was as classical leasing worker, then he moved to a fixed-term contract direct with the manufacturer. Since 2016, he’s been on the permanent payroll. Just at the start of his Krone career he met his wife and now the couple live together in the nearby town of Rheine. Maximilian Fritz is certain that a powerful factor in his achieving permanent employment in Spelle was the good financial situation in agricultural engineering. A practiced team: Recently Maximilian Fritz (2 nd f. l.) has become team manager of the transmission group on the windrower assembly line. 48 INTERVIEW LOGISTICS FOR THE “LAST MILE” 49 How often does the package delivery service call at your address? Once a week, or more than that? We all increasingly buy online and naturally expect delivery. But in densely-populated urban areas the delivery vehicles are often a hindrance in already congested daily traffic. A very promising solution comes from the Krone Group. Online trading booms and, with it, the package delivery, courier and express services: a development that the Krone Group observes very closely. There are good reasons why. In the concern’s commercial vehicle division annual production includes assembly of around 12,000 swap container bodies. These represent the most important load-carrying units for logistic branches in this segment. For two years now, the company has also been active on the so-called “last mile”. On the one hand, package containing bodies for light commercial vehicles are assembled. On the other, foundations are being laid for a new logistic concept behind which lies a joint venture started in 2017 and now producing its own load-carrying bicycles or cargo bikes. The idea flowered after a coincidental meeting between Ingo Lübs and Dr Arne Kruse, a Bremen-based businessman and bicycle expert. Now, both are directors of Rytle GmbH and involved in developing a worldwide network offering hitherto unimagined possibilities. We spoke with Ingo Lübs about the project. XtraBlatt: The Krone Group is successful the world over with agricultural machinery, it is also one of the most important European commercial vehicle manufacturers – and now producer of cargo bikes. How did this come about? Ingo Lübs: The announcement that we in Krone now assemble cargo bikes, is not really accurate. More to the point is that we have an overall view of processes in package logistics and our Rytle system has developed from this. It’s a system that has been conceived exactly for the “last metres” of city logistics. Because it is precisely at this point that the profitability of package delivery is decided. We help our customers with hard- and software to design their processes more efficiently so that, over these last metres, they can win the race in package logistics, in other words work profitably. 58 AGRITECHNICA 2019 FULL HOUSE What will the mood be amongst farmers? This question probably concerned all exhibitors just before Agritechnica. However, with 450,000 visitors the result lay at the same super-level as 2017. In Krone’s case the “rush” of enthusiasts onto the stand felt greater than ever before. A heartfelt thanks to all visitors! TELEGRAM 59 36 ON FARM FARMER MARIO ORTLIEB, SARNOW EXPERIENCING QUALITY – LIVE Expansion or specialisation? Mario Ortlieb decided on the latter. He aimed for direct marketing of his products and, year after year, welcomes continually more guests onto his farm to actively experience the agricultural life. 37 The land is lightly undulating, fields and meadows stretching into the misty distance. The cereals have been harvested and it won’t be long until the maize is ready. It’s a hot day as we visit Mario Ortlieb on his farm in Sarnow near Pritzwalk. Already in early morning the thermometer has edged up to 30 degrees. Not a cloud is in the sky. Cattle on the meadows seek shelter from the sun in the shadows of the trees. Mario Ortlieb laughs as he wipes the sweat from his brow, walking out of the barn. He is in the midst of preparing a forage wagon for the upcoming maize harvest. They won’t be carting home record amounts of silage this year. As with all the other crops, the prolonged drought has eaten into yields. Still, this farmer from the Prignitz is not a man to waste time moaning about the weather – even when it’s existentially important. Mario Ortlieb is much happier thinking about how to further develop his farming business. What he has already achieved is impressive. All the ideas that he still has in his head, on the other hand, are absolutely visionary. Mario Ortlieb wants nothing less than to find ways of helping people feel and appreciate the excitement of farming. He wants to demonstrate how food is produced, wishes to contribute towards farm products receiving the public appreciation they deserve. FULL TRANSPARENCY The word sustainability did not come up one single time during our conversation. Hereby, Mario Ortlieb was very early in pioneering his own very sustainable way in farming. It’s almost 10 years since he started direct marketing his farm produce. Not a simple route to take in the structurally weak Prignitz region where food retailing is definitely dominated by the discounters. “To be successful here with regional products, you have to convince consumers with quality”, he feels. And for this farmer, quality has a dimension that goes a very long way further than just freshness and the taste of a meat Meat and sausages are not only all home-produced, the farmer and his wife carry out all the processing too. joint or a potato. Quality for him also includes a maximum of transparency. “Our customers want to know how food is produced. They want to see how our animals are treated and how we work our fields.” Mario Ortlieb has bundled all these wishes, using them over the years to further develop the farming experience he offers visitors. Out of direct marketing has developed direct experience of agriculture, an adventure meantime enjoyed by more than 1,000 people every year on Sarnow farm. If they want, the guests are driven over the fields in a tractor-drawn touring wagon; can, for instance, look on as grain is threshed. They can take a look into the pig barn or feed the hens and ducks. Still more: they can enjoy themselves on the upper floor of a renovated barn. There’s room for up to 120 guests up there, a wide space gladly booked for wedding parties from the region. Mario Ortlieb’s wife Nicole organises such celebrations and other events. The trained hotel manageress knows all there is to know about organising large occasions. And she has a very good instinct for the finer details, as well as decorations for the individual celebrations. She manages all this with aplomb. After all, it’s her profession. It was also her idea to stage sporadic tastings ‘of the somewhat different type’: “We prepare home-produced meat alongside cheap cuts from a discounter. We serve both to our guests without them knowing the different meat sources. Guess what tastes better?”, asks a smiling Mario Ortlieb. DELIBERATE MOVE Permitting his customers such a wide-ranging insight requires a very high degree of open-mindedness, a characteristic of Mario Ortlieb’s that reflects his career so far, one quite untypical for a farmer and one which regularly and repeatedly brought him into contact with very different types of people. Born 43 years ago in Pritzwalk, he spent his childhood and youth on the parental farm in Sarnow. After schooling, he underwent a college training in retail and wholesale marketing before joining the armed forces. After demob, there followed a year in Berlin. Thanks to his strong, athletic stature he found himself in demand for, among other jobs, personal bodyguard duties. But even during his Berlin year he found himself repeatedly drawn back to the family farm in his home village. A few years after reunification, the farm was brought back to commercial viability, at first as a part-time enterprise. Later, Mario Ortlieb decided with his father to establish CONTENT CONTENT
IMPRINT 3 Editorial 6 12 Pasture management: Denmark Successful despite fertiliser limit Pasture management: The Netherlands Only quality counts 16 Farmer Heiko Berbalk, Waldems: The epicure’s ark 20 Practical tips: Seasonal check forage wagon 23 Product news 24 The Walch family, Kirchberg (A): Good milk – good cheese 28 People in Krone: Team player 31 Product news 32 Agriculture’s future: “It won’t come from the shop cash register” 36 Farmer Mario Ortlieb, Sarnow: Experiencing quality – live 40 News-Ticker 42 Facts & figures 44 Trio Group, Lipezk (RU): A logistical challenge 48 Logistics: For the “last mile” 52 Schreiner Maschinenvertrieb: Partners at eye-level 55 Agricultural contractor Michel Maurel, Sainte-Colombe (FR): Comfort-baling 58 Agritechnica 2019: Full house Publisher: Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone GmbH & Co. KG Heinrich-Krone-Straße 10 D-48480 Spelle Tel.: +49(0)5977/935-0 info.ldm@krone.de www.krone.de Responsible according to Press Law: Heinrich Wingels Editorial staff: Beckmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG Rudolf-Petzold-Ring 9 31275 Lehrte www.beckmann-verlag.de Layout: Beckmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG Rudolf-Petzold-Ring 9 D-31275 Lehrte www.beckmann-verlag.de Print: Bonifatius Druckerei Karl-Schurz-Straße 26 33100 Paderborn Photographic material: Unless specified differently: Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone GmbH & Co. KG and editorial staff respectively S. 7: Laursen (1) S. 24–27: Walch (3) S. 30: FSL (2) S. 32–35: DLG S. 36–39: Ortlieb (2) S. 52–53: Schreiner (1) S. 44–47: Redaktion profi Print run: 38,000 copies XtraBlatt appears biannually for Krone customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Reprints only allowed with permission of publisher. This also applies to copying into electronic databanks and reproduction on CD-ROM. If you no longer wish to receive e-mails from us after receiving the Krone XtraBlatt, please let us know by e-mail info.ldm@krone.de. We will immediately take you off the distribution list. All data we receive from you is treated confidentially. It is only used for processing your requests and feedback. We do not communicate any data to third parties. 5
