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XtraBlatt Issue 02-2017

  • Text
  • Krone
  • Machinery
  • Forage
  • Silage
  • Maize
  • Agricultural
  • Cows
  • Farmers
  • Menschen
  • Bale

MENSCHEN ON-FARM RUBRIK

MENSCHEN ON-FARM RUBRIK Contractor Vöhringer FEED FROM THE A The Swabian Alb are upland areas not exactly well known for high yields from field and meadow. However, of greatest importance for farmers is best possible forage quality, making this a priority on the agenda of the Gebrüder Vöhringer Lohnbetrieb GbR in Steingebronn. The day our reporting team visited the agricultural contractors Vöhringer Brothers in Steingebronn a good 60 km south of Stuttgart on the upland Swabian Alb region, the steading was a hive of activity. Senior manager Ernst Vöhringer, his sons Johannes and Christian who had taken over the firm in 2011, as well as the farm student Timo Strobel were all in the workshop making final adjustments to two large square balers. The job had to be finished by midday and the machines parked for the winter in the large machinery barn. It’s a tight fit there. To make room, two forage harvesters, a handful of bale and silage wagons and the two all-wheel drive trucks with silage wagon bodies all had to be extracted from the back row to make more room before being re- 26

LB 2 1 Four-axle all-wheel drive trucks with self-mounted silage transporting bodies are a specialty of the contractor Vöhringer. 2 Every year, the Vöhringer company bales an average 10,000 round and large square bales. FARM GROWTH The relatively heavy rainfall from start of summer helped parked. “Today we’re starting on the maize silage. In the last few days we’ve been getting the machines ready. The weather report promises sunshine this week and our first customers are already pawing the ground, wanting to get into their maize,” says Ernst Vöhringer. The weather had been more than mixed in the previous weeks. In fact, over the entire 2017 harvest year. This, anyhow, is how Johannes Vöhringer has seen things: “With us, the second grass cut turned out pretty thin because of drought. As a result, many farmers decided to cut more cereal area than usual for wholecrop silage in order to secure enough winter feed. For us, this meant a good 220 ha of chopping,” he explains. 1 the third grass cut towards a more normal yield, adds his brother Christian. And things looked “quite acceptable” for the fourth cut in mid-September, he reckons, although this is generally requested by just a few farmers. “And we only think about a fifth cut at all in very good years. But 2017 hasn’t been that kind of season, certainly not for grass anyway,” explains brother Christian. Thus, it’s not surprising that fewer bales than usual have been produced by the contractors: around 4000 silage bales and 1000 hay and straw bales. “Normally, we produce as many as 10,000 round bales with two-thirds hay and silage and the rest straw,” he explains. Big square bale production gives an annual total of 10,000 to 12,000 bales. Also very important for the Vöhringer firm’s forage harvesting work are naturally both BiG X harvesters, each working an average 500 hours per season working through two-thirds grass and one-third maize and wholecrop. This represents between 2000 and 2500 ha chop- 27