4 5 PUBLISHING INFORMATION Publisher: Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone GmbH & Co. KG Heinrich-Krone-Straße 10 D 48480 Spelle Tel.: +49(0)5977/935-0 info.ldm@krone.de www.krone.de Responsible according to German press law: Markus Steinwendner Editorial office: Beckmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG Rudolf-Petzold-Ring 9 D 31275 Lehrte www.beckmann-verlag.de Designers: Beckmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG Rudolf-Petzold-Ring 9 D 31275 Lehrte www.beckmann-verlag.de Printers: Bonifatius Druckerei Karl-Schurz-Straße 26 D 33100 Paderborn Photos and artwork: Unless otherwise stated: Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone GmbH & Co. KG or editor p8-9 Möslinger (3) p12 Spycher (1) p14-17 Egger Holzwerkstoffe p21 Hüsecken (1) p26-27 Messer p32-34 Hüting (2) p38 Höller (2) p41 Jelca Kollatsch, Demography Agency Zukunftsfest p44 Agrartechnik Sachsen (1) p48 Lind p55-59 Katslösa Agro (1) Circulation copy number: 38,000 English translation: trans-agrar XtraBlatt is published twice a year for customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Any reprint, inclusion in electronic databases and reproduction on CD-ROM requires the permission of the publisher. We send out the Krone-XtraBlatt twice a year. Should you no longer wish to receive the publication, please let us know, preferably by e-mail sent to info.ldm@krone.de. We will naturally remove you from our distribution list immediately. Any data we receive from you will be treated confidentially and will only be used to process your enquiries and feedback. We do not pass on any data to third parties. CONTENTS CONTENTS 5 3 Editorial Editorial 6 Hackgut Möslinger, Austria Hackgut Möslinger, Austria : Think big, chop small 10 10 The Spycher family, Switzerland: Branching out 14 14 Egger Holzwerkstoffe: Barking up the right tree 18 18 Hüsecken Gbr, Tiefendorf: The feed optimisers 22 22 Krone Group: “If we have rules, they must be the same for everyone.” 26 26 NIR Control dual Sensor: One sensor – two applications 32 32 Timing is key in maize: Earlier than expected 35 35 Calendar 2022: From fans for fans 36 36 Höller livery stables, Lindlar: Hay for true connoisseurs Höller livery stables, Lindlar: Hay for true connoisseurs 40 40 News ticker 42 42 Agrartechnik Sachsen: Ready to take on the future 45 45 Validation Centre: Officially inaugurated 46 46 Loader, rakes, wrappers: Innovations for 2022 48 48 Livestock farming: Enough is enough! 50 50 Smart Support: "The customer has the key." 54 54 SmartConnect Solar: Box to go SmartConnect Solar: Box to go 56 56 Katslösa Agro, Sweden: For horses just the best Katslösa Agro, Sweden: For horses just the best 26 KNOWLEDGE NIR CONTROL DUAL SENSOR ONE SENSOR – TWO APPLICATIONS 27 NIR CONTROL DUAL SENSOR ONE SENSOR – TWO APPLICATIONS Near infrared spectroscopy, or “NIR” for short, is an acronym for a technology that allows users to gain deep insights into nutrient levels of silage and slurry, for example. Jens-Peter Messer uses the technology for optimising the processes on his farm Farmer and contractor Jens-Peter Messer goes about his work in a region where other people spend their holidays. His arable farm is situated 10km from the coast line of the Baltic Sea where he farms approx. 750ha of land, operates five biogas plants of an installed capacity of 5.9MW, manages a contracting company that employs 14 people and rents out five holiday cottages and 11 holiday apartments to tourists. “We never get bored around here,” tells Jens-Peter and adds: “In addition to this farm here in Stolltebüll, we bought another 750ha grassland and arable farm in the south of Denmark in 2017.” Jens-Peter is quite aware that his machine fleet is a bit oversized for the acreage they cover every year. He explains: “Two Krone BiG X forage harvesters – an 880 and a 630 – take care of harvesting our own approx. 900ha of maize and two customer fields. This means, our machines are a bit over the top, but with the two farms situated 60km apart, Contractor Jens-Peter Messer (right) and his manager Malte Carlsburg use a dual NIR sensor on a Holmer slurry trac with a Zunhammer tank and on a Krone forage harvester. “NIR” – HOW IT WORKS Near-infrared spectroscopy, NIR spectroscopy or NIRS / NIR for short is a physical analysis technology that is based on spectroscopy in the short-wave infrared light range (Source: Wikipedia). A light shines on the medium to be analysed which in turn reflects the light. The sensor measures the reflection and compares the result to the data stored. 32 KNOWLEDGE TIMING IS KEY IN MAIZE EARLIER THAN EXPECTED It is important to start measuring dry matter contents (DM) in silage maize well ahead of harvest and then keep going up to harvest which is best when DM is 32–34%. Also, cuts should be shorter than 9mm and the stubble as high as 50cm. This is the recipe for high-quality maize silage, says vet André Hüting 33 TIMING IS KEY IN MAIZE EARLIER THAN EXPECTED I n grain, farmers measure moisture levels down to a tenth percent accuracy before they move into the field whereas for maize they are happy with a rough guess. “Yet, experience shows that the maize harvest is usually delayed far too long until DM contents are developing towards the 38- 40% threshold. Yet at this DM level, the silage is much more difficult to compact. Compacting is best at 32–34% DM, André is convinced. He and his colleagues run a veterinary practice which is linked to their consulting firm “KuhBlick”. For many percentage. “The procedure was repeated after a number of days – depending on the weather. This helped us watch the ripening process," he explains. In fact, the crop ripened fast in the light soils of the Rhine valley, also because of the lack of rain and high temperatures. “Most farmers were planning to start harvest not before the end of September, but that would have been too late,” comments André. When DM levels in the first stands reached the proper percentages, André gave the contractors the go-ahead for the 7th of September. The vets look after the feed quality of approximately 200 dairy and beef farmers, each of whom grows 40–60 hectares of maize, which totals to 10,000 hectares. The aim is also to collaborate with the contractors in the region to get the optimum harvest date for each individual stand. “The contractors appreciate that very much, because this allows them to deliver the best-quality feed and at the same time reduce the time pressure. When all farmers want to harvest at the same time – which is typically the case – the haulage chains don’t really cope or at least not at the required quality. Yet, by analysing the stands by soil, variety and maturity at an early stage and in all fields, they can schedule accordingly. A win win. Each sampling costs €15. Although the price doesn’t really cover the costs, they consider it part of their consultancy service. Another motivation is to raise the awareness for what is the best time for harvest. “The increase in quality is enormous,” is his conclusion when he looks at the results. “We also checked the quality with the particle separator and found it was excellent. 7mm chops and cracked kernels really speak for themselves. And the operators who do the rolling on the clamp have confirmed that they were able to get a top-notch compression from a 32–33 % DM crop. This in turn helps enormously with fermenta- Veterinarian André Hüting: “Experience shows that maize harvests usually begin far too late when the DM levels are close to 38–40%, which is too high.” years, they have been offering advice and assistance in all aspects of dairy and beef cattle husbandry and feeding for improving animal health and performance. XtraBlatt has repeatedly reported about their activities. The vets consider feed quality of grass and maize silage as an integral part of these issues. This year they added another detail to their service: the analysis of DM levels in maize silage which is carried out before the forager actually moves into the field. This service allows farmers to assess the ripeness of their crop by using scientific figures for an optimum timing of the harvest. AN EARLY START To do that, they cut five plants from each maize field of their clients, making sure these were cut in different patches. Then the plants were shredded with a regular garden shredder, tells André. Next, the material was mixed and a 500g sample was removed from the mix. This was poured into a food processor for further shredding. After that, the material was analysed in their own lab to determine the exact DM 46 KNOWLEDGE LOADING, RAKING, WRAPPING INNOVATIONS FOR 2022 Krone has added several new products to its range for the 2022 season. We present three of them in this issue of XtraBlatt THE GX GENERAL-PURPOSE WAGON JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES WITH A WORLD-FIRST FEATURE The GX impresses by its versatility and exceptionally gentle yet speedy unloading. Available in 44m³ and 52m³ sizes, the GX 440 has a tandem axle whereas the GX 520 runs on a tridem setup; all come with an ISOBUS-compatible control unit. A robust fabric belt, two chains and the plexiglass headboard constitute the unloading unit which is powered by two hydraulic motors. As soon as the GX is in position, the chains pull the floor belt and the headboard towards the tailgate. A world first in this context is the Krone ExactUnload feature. For example, to set up a fresh clamp, the operator simply enters the desired length to the console. After that, the GX controls the unloading rate automatically and relative to the forward speed of the tractor. When the GX arrives at the end of the pre-set length, it is completely empty. By default, the floor moves at a rate of eight metres per minute, and this can be doubled in fast mode. Thus, the GX 440 is cleared out in approximately 40 seconds. The GX also scores high marks for its exceptionally low kerb weight. It can increase its volume by telescoping the extensions hydraulically by another up to 700mm. Very practical indeed are also the rubber strips that seal the side walls, preventing any losses when hauling fine bulk materials such as grain or rape. 47 SWADRO S 380, S 420 AND S 460 SINGLE ROTOR RAKES MORE OPERATOR COMFORT, MORE PERFORMANCE For the new season, Krone is adding three new single-rotor rakes to its range – the Swadro S 380, S 420 and S 460. What they all have in common is the compact headstock that couples to a three-point rear linkage. This reduces the load on the front axle by up to 10% compared to other trailed designs, translating into less power required for lifting so that even smaller lightweight tractors can take on swathing. The swathing curtains are folded and adjusted conveniently, the rotor height is controlled with down to the millimetre precision, and the tine arms are folding with gap- and wearfree connections. The flexible connection between the main frame and the headstock is provided by a ball joint and roller in a slotted hole thereby implementing the Krone Jet Effect which prevents the tines from damaging the sward when raising / lowering on the headland. Another practical feature is the auto-centring mechanism when lifting the rake. The tracking mechanism with balancing arm leads to quiet and controlled tracking behind the tractor as well as tightest headland turns and clean rakes in corners. All new rakes have maintenance-free drivelines with overrunning clutches, so Swadro can coast smoothly on tractors with electronic/ hydraulic pto brakes. EASYWRAP 165 T BALE WRAPPER ONE FOR THE PROFESSIONALS The new, trailed and two-arm EasyWrap 165 T wrapper wraps bales with diameters from 1.00 to 1.65 metres. A high-performance satellite arm wrapper, it effortlessly picks up and processes up to 1,650kg bales and the wrapping arm orbits at impressive speeds of up to 40rpm. The drawbar swivels hydraulically and can carry ten additional rolls of film as an option. The 750mm film offers 55% or 70% prestretch according to user preference. After the number of wraps and bale size are set on the terminal, the rest is calculated automatically. At the end of the wrapping cycle, the film is cut and fixed in one smooth movement while a special mechanism traps the end of the roll; there are no annoying, loose film ends when working with the EasyWrap. An optional bale turner is available for the EasyWrap 165 T and is triggered from the cab at the touch of a button. The entire wrapping process – from picking up the bale to unloading it – can run fully automatically so operators can concentrate on driving. 48 FEATURE LIVESTOCK FARMING ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Livestock farmers in Germany are being crushed between the millstones of rapidly tightening regulations, political ignorance and price pressure from the major food retailers, says Hubert Schulte. The farmer from Saterland in northern Germany has issued this clarion call: “Act now, because the clock has already passed midnight!” 49 W hat do the national football team and German agriculture have in common? For Hubert Schulte, a farmer in the municipality of Saterland west of Bremen, the answer to this question is clear: “When it comes to the national football team, you get the feeling that there are 81 million coaches out there – each and every one of them certain they know where things went wrong in a match and, of course, only too willing to tell you how they would have done it better. It’s exactly the same with agriculture. Very few people understand the context or the facts, but everyone claims to know how it should be done.” NO ACCOUNT OF REALITY Unsurprisingly, many consumers have a romanticised idea of agriculture from grandma’s time, while at the same time demanding that the strictest quality criteria are adhered to and that food prices are kept to a bare minimum. This is, after all, an image that is pushed heavily by the advertising industry, by the media in general and by certain political parties. The result is that conventional farmers are constantly vilified as sinners against the environment and perpetrators of cruelty to animals. “What really makes me angry is that people are being deliberately misled, despite knowledge to the contrary.” Unfortunately, this also applies to institutions in the agricultural sector. As an example, he cites the promotion of pasture grazing for dairy cattle as the “non plus ultra” (see January 2021 issue of XtraBlatt). “How many farmers in Germany have contiguous land of a size that allows them to graze a herd of, say, 300 or 400 cows? This is the sort of scale at which we have to work nowadays to make a living. And do these so-called experts know what grazing means for the management of a herd of that size? Demands of this kind take no account of reality.” THE CONSUMER SHOULD BEAR THE COST Hubert Schulte’s verdict on organic farming is exactly the same. The angry farmer says it is an absolute illusion to think food production could completely go organic while food prices stay as they are: “If a farmer in this country is to make a living from organic products, they will need much larger profit margins. But profits are exactly what farmers are not getting, which we can see now already. There are the strictest regulations producers of organic milk have to comply with. Yet the blunt message we get from the dairies is that, if we don’t accept their prices, they will just source the raw material from abroad. And the same goes for organic products. But that’s something the consumer isn’t informed about.” Hubert Schulte has a similar view of animal welfare concepts which he considers to be window dressing. He is sceptical of the much-discussed plans in Germany that consumers pay a few cents more for meat that was produced to animal welfare standards. He says, a few cents are not enough to even remotely cover the costs farmer incur by complying with regulations. “I have nothing at all against new standards being defined in animal husbandry or additional investment being made in environmental protection. But it is not acceptable that we alone should always bear the costs. When you buy a car and order extra features you understand that these have to be paid for and that fuel consumption will be greater because of all the extra electronics making the car much heavier. The same principle should also apply to food: higher standards involve greater costs which the producers cannot simply be expected to absorb. And farmers also need assurances about future policy, so that if they invest today, they won’t face a completely new regulatory setup tomorrow. That’s what is destroying our agriculture.” « Hubert Schulte, a farmer from Saterland: “Higher standards involve greater costs which producers cannot simply be expected to absorb. And farmers need assurances about future policy.” 56 INTERNATIONAL KATSLÖSA AGRO, RYDSGÅRD (SWEDEN) FOR HORSES JUST THE BEST “We produce haylage for around 2,500 horses,” says Morgan Nilsson, the company’s specialist for animal feed production. 57 K atslösa Agro is located on the south coast of Sweden and northwest of Ystad. The province of Skåne is one of Sweden's most productive farming regions that is mainly known for grain. The 1,300ha land of Morgan Nilsson and Nicklas Flink stretches from Malmö to the east coast of Sweden. Even though grassland makes up 45% of the Swedish farmland, there is only little forage production in the south where Morgan and Nicklas grow grass on a 550ha area. The rest of their land is reserved for grain. Nicklas also manages another grain farm in Staffanstorp 50km in the northwest whilst Morgan focuses on growing forage grass in Katslösa. The grass grows on fertile arable land and not on permanent grassland as usual. They grow grass during three seasons and then rotate to oilseed rape, wheat and barley. Morgan Nilsson and Nicklas Flink specialise in the production of haylage for horses. They measure the maturity of the crop to determine the optimum timing for the cut and also provide their customers nutrient with balance sheets on special request. The haylage is preserved and stored as big or small square bales WRAPPING SMALL BALES The agricultural engineers started with only 10ha of land when they founded their company in 2005. Both studied at SLU, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, in Alnarp, and often worked at a contracting farm as students and after graduation. “Many people tried to bale small HD bales but gave up quickly, because there was too much manual work involved in it,” explains Morgan. “But we have never gave up the idea of baling haylage into small bales.” The plan was to market horse feed of a high quality that met special customer requirements. From the beginning on, the two entrepreneurs invested in high-quality machines and financed them by offering contract Producing more than 20,000 big bales and 25,000 small bales per year, Katslösa Agro is one of the largest haylage producers in Sweden. SMARTCONNECT SOLAR BOX TO GO With the telemetric “SmartConnect” module having been a feature on the BiG lines for quite some time, Krone now offers the universal “Smart- Connect Solar” module – a transferable option for trailed machines that is powered by a solar cell What do a 40ft container and an agricultural rake have in common? Not much it seems at first glance, but quite a lot at second glance. The common ground is – typically in modern times – digitalisation and the interconnection of machines so these can communicate their data for evaluation and further use. These machines are mostly self-propelleds – tractors, forage harvesters or trucks – all of which have their own on-board power sources to power their telemetric units. Yet, containers or swap frame beds have no on-board power sources. And yet, fleet operators want to locate 54 KNOWLEDGE and identify them at any stage in the logistics chain. “Therefore, the blue Krone division, Commercial Vehicles, developed telemetric boxes that are powered by solar panels. Introduced in 2016, these boxes operate autonomously, are maintenance-free and so small in size that they are easily mounted to containers and swap bodies or beds,” explains Stefan Niehof. “Today, there are tens of thousands in service in the world of logistics.” Stefan is one of the product managers of the digital “mykrone.green” data portal which provides all agricultural Krone customers with access to all digital services offered by the group. “The SmartConnect telemetric boxes have been a standard feature on the BiG X and BiG M lines and an option on specific machines for a number of years now, such as the BiG Pack square baler of the fourth generation as well as Comprima Plus and VariPack Plus. These telemetric features are however also very useful for all our products, especially for our trailed machines like mowers, rakes and tedders. So we took the solar boxes from the blue world and adapted them for our green world,” Stefan continues. “We officially introduced the product in this financial year 2021.” REAL-TIME DATA But what exactly is the benefit of such a solar panel which has been given the meaningful name “SmartConnect Solar”? “Naturally, the data that are generated by a rake are And this is certainly also very useful for the less complex machines – mowers, rakes, tedders – especially when these are contract or leased machines,” continues Stefan. “For example, these data help contractors count the number of operating hours for billing purposes.” VERSATILE AND UNIVERSAL Another benefit of SmartConnect Solar is that fleet owners can register all their fleet machines – including those of other makers – to mykrone.green and then collect and transfer information from and to all machines running in the harvest chain. After all, farmers and contractors usually run mixed rather than mono-brand fleets. Stefan points out another highlight of the new development: The solar box is transferrable to other machines. It just has to be assigned a different name in mykrone. green. “This makes SmartConnect Solar a true “box to go” and an intriguing option for a consistent data management.” « The telemetric “SmartConnect Solar” box enables fleet operators to connect trailed machines to telemetric services – directly and without requiring a tractor or other self-propelled. and identify them at any stage in the logistics chain. “Therefore, the blue Krone division, Commercial Vehicles, developed telemetric boxes that are powered by solar panels. Introduced in 2016, these boxes operate autonomously, from the blue world and adapted them for our green world,” Stefan continues. “We officially introduced the product in this financial year 2021.” REAL-TIME DATA But what exactly is the benefit of such a solar panel which has been given the meaningful name “SmartConnect Solar”? “Naturally, the data that are generated by a rake are The telemetric “SmartConnect Solar” box enables fleet operators to connect trailed machines to telemetric services – directly and without requiring a tractor or other self-propelled. far less complex than those generated by a forager,” explains Stefan. “The solar boxes feature GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile phone, data logger and a web interface so they can transfer data in real time to the smartphone, tablet or pc, enabling machine owners or fleet operators to retrieve position and job data from mykrone.green. Stefan Niehof is one of the product managers for the digital “mykrone.green” data portal. 55 22 INTERVIEW KRONE GROUP “IF WE HAVE RULES, THEY MUST BE THE SAME FOR EVERYONE.” 23 XtraBlatt: With the new GX general-purpose wagon, Krone has taken a decisive step in the direction of haulage equipment. What is behind this expansion of the product range? Does it mean a greater diversification and a move away from being a specialist in green forage? Bernard Krone: We see ourselves as the market leader in the forage harvesting sector, but it’s not only recently that we have started to branch out into related areas and product categories. And precisely because of our many years of experience in the manufacture of forage wagons and silage trailers, it made sense to harness this expertise and create new transport solutions. Especially as our Commercial Vehicles division and subsidiaries such as Knapen have enormous knowledge and skills, for example in the area of walking floors. The GX is the impressive result of many synergies in the group; it fills a logical gap in the product range and constitutes an exciting new product for the transportation of agricultural materials. This is an area in which we are extremely well versed and a sector in which we can now reach out to even more new customers. XtraBlatt: Recently, you officially opened the Krone “Future Lab” validation centre. What is the significance of this new facility for your company? Krone: Future Lab is more or less the next booster stage of our quality offensive which we embarked on more than ten years ago. In quality management and improvement, you can never claim to have actually reached any sort of goal, because it is a never-ending process. After all, our most important asset is customer satisfaction, and the quality and KRONE GROUP “IF WE HAVE RULES, THEY MUST BE THE SAME FOR EVERYONE.” Agricultre is in undergoing profound change, dealing with commodity markets in turmoil, politicians failing to do their jobs and digilisation moving in fast. How is KRONE coping with all this? XtraBlatt spoke with Bernard Krone, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Krone Holding, about current challenges and the group’s investment strategy for the future 42 PARTNERSHIPS AGRARTECHNIK SACHSEN READY TO TAKE ON THE FUTURE Dr Marcus Bertelsmeier (l) and Dr Steffen Wöbcke consider customer service a critical factor for business success. 43 people, very good customer advice and a good service programme. Therefore, we’ve always aimed at being the benchmark in terms of service in this region.” CUSTOMER PROXI- MITY IS THE KEY What started out as a small company with ten employees in a small town north of Dresden in the year of German reunification has by now grown into a company with six offices and workshops and around 150 employees, with almost 80 of these working in the workshops and parts departments. The sales and service area extends from the south of Brandenburg to the south of Saxony and to the west nearly as far as Leipzig, with sales areas varying by brand. The most prominent brands are New Holland, Krone, Horsch, Holmer, Grimme, JCB, Strautmann and GEA. A 7th dealership is coming into operation in 2023. This, too, is part of the service policy, explains Dr Steffen Wöbcke who is head of Customer Service: “Customer proximity - both literally and figuratively - is very important to us. Of course, a dealership is always a huge cost factor, but even the best mobile service team and the best remote diagnose systems are no substitute for a proper network of workshops, because many customers are not willing to embark on a 30-40km road trip to get to the nearest workshop – not even in our region with our vast fields.” The service fleet consists of about 60 vehicles which carry everything it takes to service a high-end machine. Apart from that, the service engineers can diagnose many malfunctions by using telemetrics. “Telemetrics save us and our customers a lot of time – provided the technology is available in every corner in our region, which is not really the case; but we are getting there,” adds Steffen. FULL RANGE OF SERVICE PACKAGES In order to cut out downtime altogether, predictive maintenance is one of the top offers in the service package. And the “winter inspection” is great for that. This means that the mechatronics inspect the machine for any maintenance repairs. At the end of the inspection they may suggest a possible repair and prepare a quote for A gricultural machines such as combines, foragers and beet harvesters as well as self-propelled sprayers and slurry spreaders list among the most demanding machines that require a top-notch service from a professional agricultural workshop – not only when downed in the field but also with regard to predictive maintenance. A dealership that is in charge of servicing as many as about 350 self-propelled machines is expected to have a refined service scheme in place and plenty of skills and expertise. “Deliver the best possible service was my father’s overriding tune when he opened the business in 1990,” tells Marcus Bertelsmeier who runs the firm together with his brother Ralph. “Being successful at selling machines is one thing though; turning buyers into regular customers who buy again and again is quite another and takes high-end workshops, expert service The company is running six operations, with number seven due to open in 2023. Being a benchmark service provider is more than a claim for the German contracting firm Agrartechnik Sachsen. On the contrary, an impressive collection of service awards bears evidence that the company is very serious about it. A particular aspect of their philosophy is qualification, a field in which they set new standards indeed 50 SMART SUPPORT “THE CUSTOMER HAS THE KEY.” INTERVIEW 51 “Smart” is a buzzword in the digital age and is mostly used in the sense of “simple, easy, better, intelligent” – smart home, smart solutions, smart communications. Welcome to the future. Digitalisation has also moved into farm equipment and farming where service engineers use telemetry and remote diagnostics as these offer a great potential for saving costs. For this purpose, Krone is constantly expanding its range of digital products which are grouped under the “mykrone. green” platform. One of the latest innovations to be presented at Agritechnica 2022 is “Smart Support”, i. e. a “better support”. XtraBlatt talked to Sebastian Tillmann, the product manager of Smart Support at Technical Customer Service, and Henrik Bauhaus who is in charge of Smart Support within in the mykrone. green team. XtraBlatt: What is the objective of Smart Support? Henrik Bauhaus: Smart Support is a digital application for our service partners and industrial end customers. It provides access to service-related machine data via an internet platform. This helps our service partners to get comprehensive and rapid support. Smart Support is embedded in the Krone portal “mykrone.green”, to which our customers, Krone service partners and the aftersales engineers of the agricultural machinery factory have access. With Smart Support, it will be possible to retrieve service-related data from the machines, such as current error messages, the error history and the physical location of the machine. In addition, the CCI 800 or CCI 1200 terminal screens or the readings on the screen can be viewed in real time, which of course is an enormous help in troubleshooting. XtraBlatt: Does that mean that everybody – the customer, the engineer and the manufacturer – sees the same data? SMART SUPPORT “THE CUSTOMER HAS THE KEY.” Digital applications for agricultural equipment offer many benefits – also for service engineers. XtraBLatt reports what the Krone “Smart Support” has on offer 36 HÖLLER LIVERY STABLES, LINDLAR HAY FOR TRUE CONNOISSEURS 1 FEATURE 37 For farmer Michael Höller, making high-quality hay is way more than simple forage production – it’s his passion. XtraBlatt visited his farm in Lindlar about 30km east of Cologne in Germany, to find out more change which also prompted him to rethink his approach and switch from conventional to organic farming. The decision to give up dairy farming was one he had been contemplating for a long time. Low milk prices, the pressure to tailor his farming practices to prioritise yield and performance – Michael Höller had had enough of all that. As he has always had an affinity with horses, it made sense to convert his farm to a livery yard. The Bergisches Land is home to several of these liveries, since its proximity to the densely populated Rhine metropolises of Cologne and Düsseldorf and high recreational value make it very appealing. Michael Höller soon became established in the horse world with his particular take on the concept. Livery places with him are now highly sought-after and the waiting list is long. So what has made his livery farm with space for up to 120 horses so successful? “I didn’t want to run a conventional livery yard. Instead, Not all green fodder is the same. While dairy cows are expected to produce milk, recreational horses have to watch their weight, so they need different diets. Farmer Michael Höller from Lindlar in the uplands to the east of Cologne known as the Bergisches Land knows exactly what cows need in their feed, and horses too. Ten years ago he converted his 130ha dairy farm to a livery farm for recreational horses – a I wanted the horses in my care to live in as natural a way as possible”, explained Michael Höller. KEEPING HORSES IN PADDOCKS On this farm, it's all about the horse husbandry. Only a very small number of horses on the farm are housed in conventional stables. “Most of our horses live in groups of up to 16 in open barns”, says Michael Höller, as reflected in the farm's name Bergischen Laufstallanlage; a nod to the region and the livery system he has devised. Each horse has at least 100m 2 of space. There is also a field shelter and outdoor hay racks. “Horses are herd animals, so keeping them in groups is the next best thing to their natural environment”, he explains. But it's not just the husbandry concept that makes places at these livery stables so sought after. Another reason is the high-quality organic fodder that the farmer now produces. "The hay we use is nutritious and palatable for the horses, but doesn't allow them to gain weight", he emphasises. It sounds simple enough, but in practice it's not that easy to achieve. When it comes to hay production, there are numerous variables – starting with the choice of grasses and the fertilising method, then the harvesting process and finally the way in which the fodder is offered to the horses. 1 Michael Höller has converted his 130ha dairy farm to a livery farm for 120 horses. 2 The horse hay is still fresh and crisp even after months of storage. 3 A passionate haymaker – Michael Höller. 2 3 14 TITLE THEME EGGER HOLZWERKSTOFFE BARKING UP THE RIGHT TREE 1 TITLE STORY 15 B ut why are we profiling Egger of all companies in XtraBlatt? Well, its proprietor Fritz Egger is a farmer, too. He runs a dairy farm that also finishes bullocks in St. Johann in Tyrol, Austria. Xtrablatt has covered the farm in the past. In this issue, though, we are casting the spotlight on the company's wood-based panel business, Egger Holzwerkstoffe. Egger remains a family business to this day. It is owned by two brothers, Michael and Fritz Egger, who help define the company’s strategic direction. Egger’s group management team is now in charge of day-to-day operations. The group generated sales in excess of €3bn in the 2020/2021 financial year – an 8.9% growth compared with 2019/2020. Its workforce is on the increase, too: some 10,400 people worked for the company at the end of April 2021. Egger runs 20 production facilities in Austria, Germany, the UK, France, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Argentina, Poland and the US. Its Austrian mills can be found in St. Johann, Wörgl and Unterradlberg; the company also has sites in the German towns of Brilon, Bevern, Gifhorn, Bünde, Marienmünster and Wismar. Altogether, the group made 9.6 million m 3 of wood-based panels, including lumber, in the past financial year. By way of comparison, this figure had stood at 8.9 million m 3 in 2019/2020. FULLY INTEGRATED Egger’s largest German mill is in Brilon, located in the western region of Hochsauerland. This site was built from scratch in 1990. Today, roughly 1,250 people work there. Brilon is the Egger Group’s first fully integrated location and unlocks countless synergies. That is to say, all of its manufacturing processes operate in a closed loop, from logs to finished products. The sawlogs are turned into lumber products and the sawmilling residues generated are used to make wood-based sheets. What’s more, Egger reuses any leftover materials that cannot be recycled, for instance, to generate electricity at its own biomass-fired power plant. The main materials used by Egger are: timber (89% by quantity), paper (1%) and chemicals (10%). Each year, the company sources around 12 million tonnes. The timber is used to make chips, fibres and strands – the main elements used in board production. Its mills need chemical feedstocks for the adhesive it uses to bind raw board and to manufacture resin for decorative surfaces. Raw and decor paper are also required to make coating materials. More than 3,000 partner entities supply the group with timber. Egger mainly procures three types of timber: logs, sawmilling residues and waste wood. The group sources logs from around 1,400 suppliers at the moment. It goes without saying that timber is the main raw material used to make particleboard. And forests are important to many farmers' businesses, too. So, XtraBlatt took a look around at Egger Holzwerkstoffe and came away having learned a lot about timber and the marketplace 1 Egger turns fresh logs and recycled products into particleboard. 2 The origins of its logs have to be completely traceable. 2 14 TITLE THEME EGGER HOLZWERKSTOFFE BARKING UP THE RIGHT TREE 1 TITLE STORY 15 B ut why are we profiling Egger of all companies in XtraBlatt? Well, its proprietor Fritz Egger is a farmer, too. He runs a dairy farm that also finishes bullocks in St. Johann in Tyrol, Austria. Xtrablatt has covered the farm in the past. In this issue, though, we are casting the spotlight on the company's wood-based panel business, Egger Holzwerkstoffe. Egger remains a family business to this day. It is owned by two brothers, Michael and Fritz Egger, who help define the company’s strategic direction. Egger’s group management team is now in charge of day-to-day operations. The group generated sales in excess of €3bn in the 2020/2021 financial year – an 8.9% growth compared with 2019/2020. Its workforce is on the increase, too: some 10,400 people worked for the company at the end of April 2021. Egger runs 20 production facilities in Austria, Germany, the UK, France, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Argentina, Poland and the US. Its Austrian mills can be found in St. Johann, Wörgl and Unterradlberg; the company also has sites in the German towns of Brilon, Bevern, Gifhorn, Bünde, Marienmünster and Wismar. Altogether, the group made 9.6 million m 3 of wood-based panels, including lumber, in the past financial year. By way of comparison, this figure had stood at 8.9 million m 3 in 2019/2020. FULLY INTEGRATED Egger’s largest German mill is in Brilon, located in the western region of Hochsauerland. This site was built from scratch in 1990. Today, roughly 1,250 people work there. Brilon is the Egger Group’s first fully integrated location and unlocks countless synergies. That is to say, all of its manufacturing processes operate in a closed loop, from logs to finished products. The sawlogs are turned into lumber products and the sawmilling residues generated are used to make wood-based sheets. What’s more, Egger reuses any leftover materials that cannot be recycled, for instance, to generate electricity at its own biomass-fired power plant. The main materials used by Egger are: timber (89% by quantity), paper (1%) and chemicals (10%). Each year, the company sources around 12 million tonnes. The timber is used to make chips, fibres and strands – the main elements used in board production. Its mills need chemical feedstocks for the adhesive it uses to bind raw board and to manufacture resin for decorative surfaces. Raw and decor paper are also required to make coating materials. More than 3,000 partner entities supply the group with timber. Egger mainly procures three types of timber: logs, sawmilling residues and waste wood. The group sources logs from around 1,400 suppliers at the moment. It goes without saying that timber is the main raw material used to make particleboard. And forests are important to many farmers' businesses, too. So, XtraBlatt took a look around at Egger Holzwerkstoffe and came away having learned a lot about timber and the marketplace 1 Egger turns fresh logs and recycled products into particleboard. 2 The origins of its logs have to be completely traceable. 2 10 THE SPYCHER FAMILY, VAUX-SUR-MORGES (SWITZERLAND) BRANCHING OUT Hailing from Vaux-sur-Morges in the Swiss canton of Vaud, David runs a contractor specialising in chipping wood primarily harvested from forests between Lausanne and Geneva. But no matter what he's doing, David always has Krone’s new GX trailer ready to go. TITLE STORY 11 David Spycher’s farm is nestled in the tranquil village of Vaux-sur-Morges, around 15km west of Lausanne in the Swiss canton of Vaud. Surrounded by small vineyards, fields and pastures, the farm sits on a plateau above the Morges Valley – with a delightful view of Lake Geneva just a few kilometres away. Further to the northwest, you can take in views of the forest-covered mountains of the Swiss Jura. So it’s no surprise that this idyllic region draws huge numbers of holiday-makers year in, year out. But it looks like lots of work right now at David’s farm. A few steps away from several historic-looking homes and businesses, a few old barns and stables are in the process of being torn down. “We can’t use these old low-ceiling buildings, some of which are wooden structures, anymore. So instead, we're building a big new hall where we can store some machinery and large quantities of wood chips,” he remarks. With an education in farming, David (43) not only manages a 52ha farm that produces crops and keeps suckler cows; he also operates a contractor that covers the entire harvest process for fodder crops. That being said, making wood chips is a much bigger business – and now one of the company’s main pillars. “I can’t make enough money for our six-person family on farming alone. So I'm glad that I entered the commercial wood chipping business a short time after taking over the farm,” David stresses. 80 SUCKLER COWS The eldest of four children, David took over the farm from his parents in 2006. “Dairy production was no longer profitable with our herd of 35 cows, so we joined forces with a neighbouring farm in 2015 and kept a total of 70 dairy cows. But just four years later, we shut down dairy production altogether because it wasn't profitable,” David adds. But he wasn’t willing or able to give David Spycher is a busy man: along with running a farm that includes a herd of suckler cows, he also has a successful second business as a contractor making wood chips The deep litter barn, newly built in 2015, offers space for 80 suckler cows plus calves. Another 40 cattle can still be kept in the old barn on the farm site. 10 THE SPYCHER FAMILY, VAUX-SUR-MORGES (SWITZERLAND) BRANCHING OUT Hailing from Vaux-sur-Morges in the Swiss canton of Vaud, David runs a contractor specialising in chipping wood primarily harvested from forests between Lausanne and Geneva. But no matter what he's doing, David always has Krone’s new GX trailer ready to go. TITLE STORY 11 David Spycher’s farm is nestled in the tranquil village of Vaux-sur-Morges, around 15km west of Lausanne in the Swiss canton of Vaud. Surrounded by small vineyards, fields and pastures, the farm sits on a plateau above the Morges Valley – with a delightful view of Lake Geneva just a few kilometres away. Further to the northwest, you can take in views of the forest-covered mountains of the Swiss Jura. So it’s no surprise that this idyllic region draws huge numbers of holiday-makers year in, year out. But it looks like lots of work right now at David’s farm. A few steps away from several historic-looking homes and businesses, a few old barns and stables are in the process of being torn down. “We can’t use these old low-ceiling buildings, some of which are wooden structures, anymore. So instead, we're building a big new hall where we can store some machinery and large quantities of wood chips,” he remarks. With an education in farming, David (43) not only manages a 52ha farm that produces crops and keeps suckler cows; he also operates a contractor that covers the entire harvest process for fodder crops. That being said, making wood chips is a much bigger business – and now one of the company’s main pillars. “I can’t make enough money for our six-person family on farming alone. So I'm glad that I entered the commercial wood chipping business a short time after taking over the farm,” David stresses. 80 SUCKLER COWS The eldest of four children, David took over the farm from his parents in 2006. “Dairy production was no longer profitable with our herd of 35 cows, so we joined forces with a neighbouring farm in 2015 and kept a total of 70 dairy cows. But just four years later, we shut down dairy production altogether because it wasn't profitable,” David adds. But he wasn’t willing or able to give David Spycher is a busy man: along with running a farm that includes a herd of suckler cows, he also has a successful second business as a contractor making wood chips The deep litter barn, newly built in 2015, offers space for 80 suckler cows plus calves. Another 40 cattle can still be kept in the old barn on the farm site. 6 TITLE STORY HACKGUT MÖSLINGER, GASPOLTSHOFEN (AUSTRIA) THINK BIG, CHOP SMALL 7 Just as the satnav announces “Take the next right”, the eye-catching green of the Sennebogen materials handling excavator becomes visible through a gap in the hedge. When we round the corner into the premises of Hackgut Möslinger, we realise that this otherwise imposing machine is dwarfed by the size of the main building. Strategically positioned in the courtyard is a weighbridge over which all vehicles carrying loads to and from the company have to pass. Philipp Möslinger originally trained to be a carpenter, so he has been working with wood for a long time. At some point, he had the idea of buying a tractor equipped with a chipper to produce wood chips on a large scale. His company slogan is “Wood chips from the forest straight to your living room”. Business went well and Philipp made further investment and hired additional staff. In the meantime, his fleet of vehicles has grown considerably to comprise seven trucks, two of them semi-trailers with walking floors, three hook-lift articulated trucks, a log truck and a four-axle pump tanker. Hooking up various trailers and containers to his fleet of trucks gives him the flexibility to transport more than just logs. In this way, he not only secures his own supply of raw materials, but also serves the needs of the timber trade. He works in partnership with his brother Mathias, who runs a forestry company and uses harvesters and forwarders for felling and logging. One addition is a thermal trailer for transporting hot tarmac. “I originally acquired it to increase the utilisation of the tractor units,” says Philipp. “Since then, however, it has tied up almost an entire tractor unit because it is used so much. Because the tarmac is not dumped but pushed off, it can also deposit its load under bridges or in tunnels.” HACKGUT MÖSLINGER, GASPOLTSHOFEN (AUSTRIA) THINK BIG, CHOP SMALL Wood chips are the core business of Hackgut Möslinger, but the service portfolio of this contracting company in Upper Austria is much broader. Its operations also require suitable transport equipment – for example a Krone TX. XtraBlatt paid the company a visit 18 FEATURE HÜSECKEN FARM, TIEFENDORF THE FEED OPTIMISERS 19 It is a sunny morning. The cattle are feeding in the shed. Others are lying in their cubicles sleeping. Marc Cassel is sitting at his computer checking the data recorded by the diet feeder in the past few days. “It’s really important for us that the proportion of the components in our basic ration are exactly in line with the guidelines and that we stick precisely to the mixing times," explains Marc, the future son-in-law of co-owner Dirk Hüsecken. Marc is in charge of feeding on this mixed farm. The family farms around 140ha of grassland as well as another 125ha of arable land. There are 220 dairy cows in the shed. Along with the calves, almost 500 animals have to be fed. “This means we have quite substantial feed requirements," Marc says. A trained farmer, he understands the importance of feed for milk yields and he does everything possible to find the best compromise between milk yield and feed costs. The successful dairy farm has a long history. The farm got a proper boost in terms of development when the brothers Dirk and Ulrich Hüsecken got on board. “Back then we had twelve cows living in a shed, as well as a few hectares of grassland and tillage," Dirk reports. Dirk and his brother pursued a consistent growth strategy which focussed in particular on purchasing land. The business, which was changed to a private company in 2002, now farms 265ha and a 220-head dairy herd. However, the land bought down through the years is scattered over quite a large area, which does not make their job any easier. “Our average field size is 2–2.5ha. In addition, most of the land is on the slopes on the southern edge of the Ruhr Valley.” To nevertheless keep the feed costs under control, they have meticulously adjusted their processes to these structures over the years, in particular the sequence in which the fields are harvested. A contracting business Times are hard for milk producers. Things are no different on the Hüsecken farm to the south of the Ruhr Valley in Germany, where the Hüsecken family keep a worried eye on the milk price. However, rather than complaining about the situation, the entire family are making adjustments where they can, and doing so with great success The Hüsecken GbR business currently manages around 220 dairy cows and the followers.
