Seventeen Members of the Club arrived at Dortmund airport in the afternoon of 16th June and after some confusion over the car hire venue drove the 125 kilometres north- west to the Spa Town of Bad Salzuflen, the groups base for the four day tour.
The first evening was spent in the local Ratskeller restaurant eating a traditional German Fayre. Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm as we made our first Farm Visit to the farm of the Sievert family at Hellerhausen. We were met here by our German “fixer” Moritz von Eckardstein, whom seemed to know everyone in the area and be quite influential. Our hosts on this traditional family farm were Torten and Jan Henrik. This was a truly mixed farm producing pork, milk and growing six different crops on 189 ha. With grant money from the EU they had installed a robot for milking the 56 cows and recently taken delivery of two further robots, one to clean the cow stalls and the other to push the feed up in the passage-way to the cows. Their crops of OSR and Sugar beet looked very well, a proportion of their cereals were grown for seed.
As a group we wondered how financially successful the business was and what they actually occupied their time doing – as a local contractor carried out the majority of the field operations.
This visit was followed by a few hours looking around the Spa Town including the famous Graduation Tower. Our local guide explained how these structures were constructed of Blackthorn branches woven together in 30 metre tall towers and the local saline water was washed over the branches to extract the salt.
Out late afternoon visit was hosted by Yvonne and Constantin Von Laer at Herford. On this hot and sunny afternoon we were welcomed with fizzy water and fresh strawberries. Yvonne then explained their business which consisted of mainly growing Strawberries and White Asparagus. The total farm area here was about 130 ha with a further 100 ha in the East of the country, not only were they growing these two specialist crops they also grew OSR and wheat. At this location they had 20 hectares of Asparagus and 36 hectares of strawberries. The white asparagus yielded higher than green asparagus and we were shown around the grading line and packaging line before seeing the crop growing out in the field. Following the visit we were treated to a sumptuous buffet at the local Golf Club where the asparagus was served as part of the meal.
Sunday morning was again a warm sunny affair as we ventured a few miles to Moritz von Eckardstein’s own farm at Iggenhausen. The farm occupies 270 ha of arable land, 210 which is eligible for subsidies from the EU. Enterprises also include 410 ha of forestry and 35 ha of lakes.
Most of the field work is again carried out by contractors as they own one Fendt 826 tractor which is used for spraying and fertiliser applications.
Half of the farm is in an environmentally “Red Zone” which restricts the use of fertiliser due to high levels of nitrate in the groundwater or high phosphate levels detected in the soil. Part of the farm is also designated as a nature conservation area and here no plant protection products can be applied within 300 metres of a water course. We witnessed what an effect this had on a growing maize crop!
Cropping on the farm was diverse, but with an AD plant on site. Forage crops were grown including one which was new to our party- Danube Sylphie (common name Cup Plant) This member of the sunflower family is native to parts of North America and could produce a yield greater than a forage maize crop.
Following our visit we ate a hearty lunch at the local Chinese restaurant-which just happened to be owned by Moritz.
The afternoon was free for more exploration and some members of the party visited the local historic town of Detmold, whilst others returned to Bad Salzuflen and enjoyed the town’s spa facilities.
Monday morning’s visit saw us travel north to Gaste, home of well- known family-owned machinery manufacturer Amazone. Here Matthias Beurke greeted the group. Here we were treated to a self- propelled sprayer demonstration, we were shown the granular fertiliser spreading test rig and given lunch in the company canteen where Christian Dreyer owner of the company spoke with some of our group. After lunch we drove a little further north to a brand new Amazone Factory at Bramsche and again we were given an expertly guided tour of the very hands-on assembly plant of many drills, sprayers and spreaders.
Following this visit we returned to a plant breeding station, nearer to our accommodation- W von Borries-Eckendorf. Here Sophia-Christina Sahlfeld showed us the work that is carried out to produce a new variety of wheat and we looked at demonstration plots of Wheat, Barley, Oats and Oilseeds etc. Sophia explained how the work is carried out and explained the relationship between their company and many of the seed houses in the UK.
The day was concluded with a meal back at our hotel in Bad Salzuflen and was introduced by a now traditional toast proposed by Mr Tony Alston in his own inimitable style.
A safe return to the UK took place on the Tuesday morning with a five-a.m. departure from the hotel.
It was concluded that this was a most interesting and informative Study Tour and the Chairman looks forward to welcoming some new faces when the Club visits Aberdeenshire in June 2024 for what promises to be a diverse and entertaining few days visiting farming enterprises in this very productive part of north east Scotland.
