“Haldenhof”: Martin Schnerring and family

Part of the dairy herd producing fresh non-pasteurised milk at Haldenhof

The 'Honesty Box' for payments for cut flowers in the fields at Haldenhof

Your correspondent with Sven Pietsch (translator), Ariane Amstutz (Press officer, B-W Farmers' Association), Florian Dangel (Secretary, B-W Farmers' Association) and Martin Schnerring of Haldenhof farm in front of an imposing summit with ruins of a fortress

The poster enticing people to "Discover the farmer in you" for an upcoming open farm day

A paddock recently cut for silage and the scenery around the Haldenhof farm

Recycled plastic floor sheeting in the layer barn

The milk and egg products available from the Haldenhof farm shop

“Haldenhof”: Martin Schnerring and family

The planning of the German sector of my trip has, due to constraints in language and the length of time away from my office, been a mixed bag. Several interesting and informative visits and meetings have been counterbalanced with a number of withdrawals and drop outs. The ‘Google Translate’ program that I have been using to send a translated version of my English message is apparently, a source of great hilarity to native German speakers, to my complete surprise. The original English message is the prompt for action, not the translated one. We live and learn.

In a stroke of good luck for me, through my clumsy message scheme I made contact with Ariane Amstutz who is the Press Officer for the Baden-Wuerttemberg region of the German Farmers’ Association. She kindly offered to take me to a dairy farm some 40 minutes from Stuttgart, as well as organising a friend to act as an interpreter (despite her near-perfect English).

I met Ariane, Florian Dangel (Secretary of the B-W Farmers’ Association) and Sven Pietsch (the interpreter) and we travelled to a village called Beuren, near Esslingen. Picture-postcard farm setting, apple and cherry orchard on the drive in to the farm, and parts of an old castle on a mountain close by. The farm is ninety hectares in total with 50 under pasture and 40ha cultivated on a rotation that includes wheat, barley, oats, maize and peas and then 3-4 years of pasture.

Martin Schnerring and his family own and manage what is essentially a number of farm businesses at Haldenhof. Principally it is a dairy farm, milking 40 cows all year round. Mainly Fleckviehs but with some Holstein-Friesians, the cows calve at or around 24 months and they are always housed. The cows are automatically milked and Martin inseminates them thereby not needing a bull on the farm. Replacement heifers are reared on the farm with surplus females and all the bull calves being sold to a fattener. Apart from high protein feeds such as soybean meal, the animals consume food produced on the farm.

The milk is sold as “fresh but not pasteurised milk”. There are 40 producers in the country with such a licence and only 7 in this state. The milk has a shelf life of 4 days, so it is a quick turnover product. Each cow is tested once a month to ensure the strictest health controls. The main outlet for the milk is the farm shop which also sells the farm eggs and noodles made from the eggs and wheat grown on the farm.

There is something special about the shop. During my 4 hour visit about 15 cars pulled up and purchased something. There is an honesty system for all products: a list of prices and sizes is on the wall, the milk is in the fridge in different sized containers, a range of noodles and open flats of eggs. Customers pack their own boxes or pay for a new carton if needed. Martin considers the compliance rate in the shop to be 100% which is terrific as the shop is open 24 hours per day. He also sells seasonal vegetables and fruit from neighbouring farms. In addition to this the family plants a number of area between fruit trees for seasonal flowers such as tulips, gladioli and sunflowers. People pick their own and again pay on the honesty system where it might be only 70% compliance but it is located up to 500 metres from the house.

Martin took over the running of the farm from his father in the early 1990s after a career in machine engineering and soon found his milk processor in bankruptcy. Rather than stop the dairy business he looked for ways to further process his farm produce to retain the greater share of the product value. Laying hens in a barn system were added in the late 1990s and the noodle making in the early 2000s. Realising that the proximity to a wealthy city like Stuttgart meant lots of disposal income and the farm shop and a home delivery service were obvious choices to maintain and grow the farm business. Customers can also subscribe to a ‘Green Box’ program where a box of milk, eggs, noodles and seasonal fruits and vegetables are home delivered regularly. More than 500 home customers are located within a 10 kilometre radius of the farm.

A small pub and beer garden are located on the lower level of the family’s house. Martin’s parents open the pub to villagers and visitors on Wednesday afternoons and it can be hired for birthdays and other celebrations. A great outlook into the orchard area and surrounding hills would ensure a pleasant time for all. Martin’s family has an interest in breeding and training horses for a wagon which is used for farm rides in the summer months.

The farm is located within a short distance of a UNESCO site of natural significance surrounding a disused army training facility. Over 7000 hectares have been included in this ‘Biosphere’ and many farm producers in the nearby 42 villages use the proximity to this site as a marketing edge in labelling their products.

Compliance with EU requirements has led to a more complete recording system of farm activities. By using a GPS unit in the tractor all activities such as spraying, ploughing, cutting and harvesting can be plotted on to an enhanced farm map on Google Earth. A click on a particular week in a calendar can lead to a series of different coloured tracks appearing on a map showing what was done in which paddock. In the last 15 years areas on the sides of hills near orchards have not been cultivated. This has enhanced the habitat provision for insects and birds and seen an improvement in the conservation value of the land.

Martin’s involvement in the Farmers’ Association now sees him as a representative of his region and someone often called upon to speak to the media. The farm will be open to the general public during a week when people in the state are being asked to “unearth the farmer inside you”. There is a preference for running education programs for schools in greater depth than just a farm visit. Martin believes that children understanding the details of farming is more important than watching cows in a barn.