What’s it like to farm in Germany?

[Selectamatic]

I ask for no other reason than because I’m here on holiday and think it’s a brilliant place!! Good food, strong beer, tidy, clean, cold!

The view from the plane as we were landing, what I’d give to work these fields with my old kit!!

 

[db9go]

I ask for no other reason than because I’m here on holiday and think it’s a brilliant place!! Good food, strong beer, tidy, clean, cold!

The view from the plane as we were landing, what I’d give to work these fields with my old kit!!

What part of Germany are you visiting

 

[Brisel]

I don't know. Greenies putting pressure on farmers for destroying the planet, EU bureaucracy, very high land prices, losing pesticides for dodgy reasons. Same kind of problems we have, I think. Lots of German farmers protesting at the moment too.

They've got a strong Euro which means their farmgate prices are worse than ours. They're probably wondering how we will keep buying Claas combines, Fendt tractors, Horsch cultivation implements, VW/Audi/BMW cars etc post Brexit too.

@Hartwig ?

 

[teslacoils]

I'm led to believe the return on capital from owned land is just as crap as here.

 

[JP1]

That's a bit like saying what is it like to farm in the UK?

Big and diverse country !

 

[M-J-G]

I don't know what it's like to farm there but I have been on hundreds of farms mainly in Bavaria, and I've yet to be on a farm that wasn't family run, well set up, very well farmed and extremely tidy.

I have found standards have always been similar when it comes to roads, towns, food and attitude toward business.

Cattle indoors AYR is the only thing I've seen that I would not be so keen on.

 

[Sheep]

Depends on what part you're in! Similar to the UK.

 

[Agrivator]

I'm led to believe the return on capital from owned land is just as crap as here.

Does return on capital include the annual appreciation (for now anyway) of the land you own.?

 

[Campbell]

I don't know about the farming economics, but for anyone with a touch of OCD it is wonderful place to farm, and the standards are nation wide. The phrase I recall most from dealing with Germans on machinery quality issues was "zees is unacceptable"

 

[d williams]

I don't know about the farming economics, but for anyone with a touch of OCD it is wonderful place to farm, and the standards are nation wide. The phrase I recall most from dealing with Germans on machinery quality issues was "zees is unacceptable"

It seems all industry that I’ve visited has the same standards
It’s that down to
The German way of doing things
More margin enables the standard
Farm assurance schemes??????

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Decided that Hannover city was just way too dismal and depressing for a few overnights at AT this year, so I stayed on a farm in Emmerthal in Lower Saxony about an hours drive from Hannover Messe near the town of Hamlin

Lots of beet grown there (similar to us in many ways), great old grand, “sugar house” farmhouse, still in the family but sadly no longer farming after the husband passing a few years ago.

As said, impeccably kept. Many similarities geographically and on a personal outlook (unsurprisingly) between the countries. The lady of house had taught English, so we had a good old chat, including all about Brexit!!

 

[Andrew]

Have spent quite a lot of time in East Germany with a manufacturer and was always impressed by the way things were run there, although that goes for most European farms, always well kept and tidy. Everyone always pleasant and welcoming too.
Germany would probably be my first choice if I had to emigrate.

@Xerion will know more of the detail though .

 

[d williams]

Decided that Hannover city was just way too dismal and depressing for a few overnights at AT this year, so I stayed on a farm in Emmerthal in Lower Saxony about an hours drive from Hannover Messe near the town of Hamlin

Lots of beet grown there (similar to us in many ways), great old grand, “sugar house” farmhouse, still in the family but sadly no longer farming after the husband passing a few years ago.

As said, impeccably kept. Many similarities geographically and on a personal outlook (unsurprisingly) between the countries. The lady of house had taught English, so we had a good old chat, including all about Brexit!!

There must be a big beet processing plant near to Hanover when there two years ago outside our air bb flat a lot of artics passing full of beet

 

[Flat 10]

They are protesting at the moment, about I a proposed glyphosate ban as I understand it.

 

[former farmer]

I had an interesting rail trip across Germany back in mid October. We had stopped off in Cologne for a couple of nights before travelling on to Berlin for a five day visit.

From what I saw there was virtually no areas of land neglected. It appeared to be all very well farmed. The land nearer the Rhine was more undulating and wooded, but as we went east the fields were all much larger and entirely in crop.

 

[Farmer_Joe]

we go to germany alot as a family, as part of our trips usually take kids to europa park which is there version of disney land.

Stayed a a few places along west and south,

The people are welcoming and friendly, they really appreciate your tourism and are great with with our children,

its generally immaculately clean and well maintained

I really like it there

 

[neilo]

I ask for no other reason than because I’m here on holiday and think it’s a brilliant place!! Good food, strong beer, tidy, clean, cold!

The view from the plane as we were landing, what I’d give to work these fields with my old kit!!

It depends what you want to farm. Consider the mad rewilding plans some in the UK have, then give them a dose of steroids, then let them out of their asylum. I'm told lots of sheep farmers are giving up as they are losing a lot of stock to Wolves now, and there is nothing they can do about it. There is a compensation scheme I think, but the standard answer is that you can't prove it wasn't dead already, so good bye.

Heavily subsidised AD plants all over the place, so land value & rents will be high I would imagine. Those plants were apparently exempt from spreading restrictions as the digestate wasn't classed as slurry for some reason. Now they are getting to all sorts of sh*t (see what I did there....) with pollution as a result and restrictions are getting tighter for everyone.

I'm told lots of animal vaccines are vet only too, and some just aren't licenced any more, so vet & med treatment is both massively more expensive and you have fewer tools to use.