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XtraBlatt issue 01-2016

  • Text
  • Krone
  • Machinery
  • Forage
  • Straw
  • Farmers
  • Agricultural
  • Menschen
  • Dairy
  • Maize
  • Contractor

MENSCHEN ON-FARM

MENSCHEN ON-FARM Agricultural contractor Mensching STRAW À LA CAR Agricultural contractor Thorsten Mensching can satisfy almost all his customers’ requirements during the straw harvest with a fleet of nine square balers producing three sizes of bales. 46

TE Agricultural contractor Thorsten Mensching is able to offer his customers a wide range of bale sizes. TThe agricultural contractor Mensching from Nienbrügge in Schaumburger Land developed out of a farm business. Thorsten Mensching took over the business from his parents after completing his agricultural studies and now runs the enterprise with his brother. Nowadays, he contracts with 35 staff members yearround in the countryside west of Hanover. Along with municipal groundwork and forestry tasks, the enterprise focus lies with classic agricultural jobs such as cereal combining, slurry spreading and straw harvesting. Contractor Mensching has been involved in harvesting straw, and all the associated logistics, for almost 20 years now: “This is mainly carried out for farmers who require the straw for their own use. These are farms running horses as well as dairy farms and pig breeding units”, says Thorsten Mensching. Additionally, straw is baled and delivered for a large customer, the Raiffeisen Landbund EG (RLB) in Schaumburger Land. RLB pellets the straw and sells interregionally. However, there’s also a regional market for straw determined directly by the previous year’s straw price and actual supply and demand. “Now and again, farmers also decide to bale larger amounts of straw for marketing themselves”, adds the contractor. BEING FLEXIBLE In total, Mensching produces between 40,000 and 50,000 bales per year, mainly big square ones. “We also do round baling but this represents a smaller proportion of our work.” With the nine square balers in his fleet, the contractor offers three different sizes of bales. “The three machines in 120/90 HDP size from Krone are mainly underway for the large customer RLB because the resultant large dimension bales handle best. The around 7,000 to 8,000 bales per year are stored in a hall, and these measurements help ensure space is best utilized. Pelleting is via stationary press with the pellets used for litter by dairy farmers but mainly for broiler barns”, explains Thorsten Mensching. The bale measurements 120/70 are favoured by most of the farms because they are somewhat smaller and can therefore be moved around with smaller machinery, meaning easier handling for individual farms. “A specialty increasingly in demand in the last years is chopped straw bales. With the fitted pre-chopping system, Krone Prechop, short chop straw with a theoretical length of only 21 mm is produced. Chop length is adjustable via two selectable counterblades. Prechop also achieves intensive shredding of the straw. This increases straw absorbency, a characteristic especially desired for bedding dairy cow cubicles. Additionally, straw pellets are often used as structure feed ingredient in ruminant rations.” The contractor firm Mensching offers as smallest bale the size 80/90. “This small rectangular size is favoured by many horse owners and horse pension managers because it allows more practical handling or easier working with small front loaders or pallet trolleys in restricted spaces . However, a big proportion of the harvest is baled in the large sizes, i.e. 120/90 and 120/70.” 47