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XtraBlatt Issue 02-2019

ON FARM FARMER HEIKO

ON FARM FARMER HEIKO BERBALK, WALDEMS THE EPICURE’S A “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. 16

RK 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 17