Aufrufe
vor 4 Jahren

XtraBlatt Issue 01-2019

  • Text
  • Contractors
  • Farmer
  • Farms
  • Agricultural
  • Forage
  • Silage
  • Farmers
  • Machinery
  • Krone

PRACTICE HÜTTENTHAL

PRACTICE HÜTTENTHAL DAIRY HANDMADE & REGIONAL France and Switzerland still have small regional dairies. But in Germany only big processors mostly remain. Regional specialists such as Hüttenthal are rare indeed and we make a special journey into the Odenwald to find out more for you. Hüttenthal dairy: a family concern run by Britta and Kurt Kohlhage. Meadows, woodlands and meandering brooks bedeck the Odenwald richly. This upland region nestles in the triangle between cities Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Würzburg. Some areas are partly used for cropping but most Odenwald farmland is in pasture, much of it grazed by Fleckvieh, the local cattle breed. “The backbone of our production is the milk from 16 family farms, including two with goats, that deliver every second day a total of around 14,000 l cow and 1000 l goat milk”, explains Britta Kohlhage. She and her husband Kurt own the Molkerei Hüttenthal, the Hüttenthal Dairy. The furthest-off supplier is only 25 km, i.e. a half-hour road journey, away. Britta and Kurt Kohlhage demand high standards from their milk suppliers. GM feed is banned, just as is glyphosate on the pastures. Grazing is obligatory for all animals in summer with the exemption of two farms where milking robots are in action. But there too, the cows get outdoors to soak up fresh air and sunshine on meadows alongside the robot stands. To reward the high standards required, milk price paid to suppliers is about 2 eurocents/kg above the national price. “On average, our farmers run 52 cows apiece and deliver about 400,000 kg milk annually. This gives us some 5 million kg per year that we process in our dairy to fresh products and cheese”, says Kurt Kohlhage. “For us, that’s enough. It gives us enough to do and we don’t want to expand any further.” The dairy was founded as a cooperative in 1900. Twelve years later, the family bought it. “In the Odenwald alone, there were then seven dairies”, says Kurt Kohlhage. “Now, there’s only us left.” ADDING PRODUCTS Silent witness to earlier times when milk was still delivered in cans is the typical ramp at the front of the building. Now, the white raw material is collected at a temperature of 4°C by tanker from each farm, explains Kurt Kohlhage. “Regarding daily production, there’s only limited variation. Supply fluctuated much more in the past because spring calving was widespread then. Sometimes in winter there was more than 30% less milk. But what still varies are the milk constituents. In winter, fat level is around 4.3% with protein at a maximum 3.5%. During the grazing season the respective levels are 3.9 and 3.3%. It’s completely different with the goats. In this case, all females in a herd are dried off at the same time. After kidding, they have their youngsters to suckle. So for three months – from end of November to end of February – we get absolutely no goat milk.” The Kohlhage family started producing goat milk cheese about 25 years ago, just as Britta and Kurt Kohlhage took over the business. “At that time, we were searching for an additional niche when three farmers asked whether we had interest in goat milk”, recalls Britta Kohlhage. “Then, it was very unusual. We tried it out and two of these farmers are still suppliers today.” The goat milk product range now includes two semi-hard slicing cheeses. Joining these are handmade cottage cheese and fresh goat milk. Processing goat milk is not so easy. “It is much more liable to spoil during the cheese making process compared with cow milk”, 20 21