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XtraBlatt Issue 01-2018

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

MENSCHEN INTERNATIONAL

MENSCHEN INTERNATIONAL is 240 strong with 200 in-milk at any time, 240 young stock and 120 feeding bulls. The milkers are housed in open-sided cubicle barns, the calves in huts. The farmer puts average milk yield at 11,000 l per cow and year with an average production lifetime of 2.4 lactations. Currently, milk price is 34 cents/litre. Production cost he puts at 33 c/l. For a secure return he reckons at least 38c/l price is required. Basic feed comes from his own fields, for instance triticale and barley for wholecrop silage as well as lucerne, chickpeas and a little forage maize, all ensiled. He harvests the forage in cooperation with another dairy farmer and they bill each other for the respective work. Angel Ballasteros does the mowing on both farms with his triple-mower combination from Krone, being paid 30 Euro/ha for the work on his partner’s farm. He rents the 400 HP silage harvester from his partner for 100 Euro/ ha, without driver. This cooperation system helps to reduce feed costs at least a little. “Whether enough forage can be produced from year to year depends entirely on precipitation levels”, he informs. Normally, these lie at an already sparse 400 mm per year. But in the preceding year the total was only 100 mm and he had to buy-in large amounts of lucerne and around 600 t of 70% dry matter maize grist at 180 Euro/t. He has only 10 ha under irrigation, and this piece of land is appropriately heavily exploited. In autumn, triticale and wheat are sown there and chopped for wholecrop silage in May before forage maize is drilled for autumn harvesting. The procedure repeats itself, with wheat and triticale going in again right after the maize is carted off. On the remaining land, even in normal 400 mm precipitation years, the forage year ends with cutting in May. Afterwards, the land lies fallow until drilling in autumn. sound future. However, he does look a little enviously on his colleagues further north who can rely on 800 mm rain per year. Annual flat rate Just 300 km further north, Pedro Acebo profits from exactly this reliable 800 mm. He is agricultural contractor and is also the second generation in charge, living and working in what for Spanish conditions can be called the green paradise of Cantabria, a province near the Atlantic. This countryside can be easily mistaken for the Allgäu Alpine foothills in Bavaria and proves one of the surprises of this journey through northern Spain. The way here from Angel Ballasteros‘ dairy farm runs through Basque country and westwards into Cantabria. Alvaro Sanz describes the area we are driving through. In northern León, the rule is arable cropping with most farms around 400 ha and growing wheat and barley for combining, the straw packed into big square bales and sold to livestock producers. Almost always, this baling is done by contractors. The best wheat yields are carted home in the province of Navarra, southern Basque country, where non-irrigated land produces around 6t/ha. Because of this mix of less than generous milk price and feed costs fluctuating according to precipitation, it is difficult for Angel Ballasteros to envisage the future as secure and positive. His family, the quality livestock accommodation and his innate optimism all speak for a Agricultural contractor Pedro Acebo looks happy. And he has good reason to be. After all, he’s a forage harvesting specialist right in the middle of Spain’s dedicated dairying area with as much forage growing as he could wish. With four full-time workers and one temporary hand, he is one 48

2 1 of the biggest agricultural contractors in Spain. “We are the only contractor in this region”, he underlines. Within a radius of 30 km he services around 60 dairy farms, each milking an average 80 cows. For these clients he undertakes the complete campaigns for grass and forage maize from drilling to harvest. Additionally, he does municipal work, sieves sand on the nearby Atlantic beaches and prunes roadside hedges. His machinery fleet includes four tractors of 200 to 300 HP (1,200 hours/year), a Krone triple-mower combination, two Comprima Xtreme round balers, two wrappers, a BiG X 650 for grass and maize (10-row), a mounted crop sprayer with 1,200 l tank and 15 m boom, three tipper trailers with ram unloading, a 15 m3 slurry tanker with baffle plate and two maize drills. 3 1 The verdant rolling landscape in Spain’s high north remind us of the Bavarian Allgäu. There, forage grows and from that comes the milk. 2 The Ballasteros family: father Angel with wife Laura and both children Angel and Javier. 3 The forage feed for his 600-head cattle requires at least 400 mm rain per year. In the preceding season there fell only 100 mm and Angel Ballasteros had to buy-in lucerne and maize grist. Apart from hilly fields down to permanent grass, feed crops for many of his customers comprise around 30% forage maize and 70% arable grass. Cereals are not cultivated here. Grass gets four cuts, although these don’t take place through the summer. To suit the special climate, Pedro Acebo offers his dairy farming customers an unusual, but nevertheless successful, service model. The first grass cut is carried out in October with the next two through the winter and the fourth and final cut taking place in May of the following year. Cultivation work then follows with maize drilled and then harvested in September before grass is drilled again. For all these jobs from October to October Pedro Acebo charges a flat rate of 1,300 Euro/ha. This system functions well and he’s satisfied with it, says the contractor. In future, he reckons there will be fewer dairy farms with the survivors expanding accordingly and relying more on contractor input. “However, I do not want to expand at all costs. One reason is that it’s hard to find good employees.” And fit workers he certainly needs in order to be able to reliably continue offering his flat-rate feed production model. 49