Discovery 2009

GermanyNatalie moore

Tadcaster and wetherby yfcyorkshire

From Monday 29th June to Sunday 12th July, I went to Germany on a Homestay with Gerald Norman from Hertfordshire YFC. We stayed in Lower Saxony, this is the only part of Germany that does Landjugend (Young Farmers) exchanges.

Lower Saxony

This is the flag of Lower Saxony. On arrival we were given one of these so that everyone we met on our travels could sign it as a memento.

During our 2 weeks in Germany, we had 3 hosts and one of the hosts, Johanna took us on the DLT which is the equivalent of our National AGM.

We landed at Hamburg airport.

Our first hosts, Henning and Frauke live in Filsum, only 60km from the Netherlands.

Our 3rd host, Lena, lives in Thuste, in the Ith Hills below Hannover.

Our 2nd host Johanna, lives in Gollern, near Uelzen.

The first area of Lower Saxony that we stayed in is called Ostfriesland. It is renowned for being flat and the main type of farming here is dairy farming. The majority of fields contained maize and the rest were grass. In Germany they like to milk Holstein cows as these are a German breed and they are fed on a mix of maize and grass silage.

In Ostfriesland, they have their own dialect called “Plattdeutsch”. The word for “Hello” is “Moin” and everyone in the village of Filsum says “Moin” to everyone they meet.

Ostfriesland is also renowned for drinking black tea served in small tea cups and sweetened with kluntjes, a rock candy sugar. It is sometimes flavoured with a tiny ladle of thick cream which is poured down the side of the cup and allowed to rise to the top.

Things we did during our stay in Filsum...

We helped Filsum Landjugend make a patio by forming part of a human chain to get the blocks from the trailer to the patio.

We visited a farming contractor who had built himself a small Bio-gas plant to power all of his machinery.

We visited the local cattle market which is also a large and important centre for AI in dairy cows, sending semen worldwide.

We went over the smallest bridge for cars in Europe. We went

swimming in an outdoor swimming lake.

We crossed the river in a punt with the car.

We visited a cheese makers.

We saw a big ship building yard.

We had a poker night.

We also visited a dairy farm that was controlled entirely from a computer. It had a robotic milker which cost 200,000 Euros and an automatic feeder. All the cows had collars which were read by the milker and so if they had already been milked it would not feed them. At the other end of the shed the cows’ collars were read at the gate by a sensor and if they had been milked the gate would open into the field and if not, they had to stay in the shed! This robotic milker allows cows to be

milked up to 4 times a day, increasing the productivity of the herd.

On the Thursday we said goodbye to Filsum and took a train from the local town of Leer to Bremen and then on to Hamburg and then to Uelzen where our second host Johanna met us at the station. She took us to her village, Gollern, where we met her family and looked at their Bio-gas plant before going to a birthday party of one of the member’s of her Landjugend club.

Gollern architecture.

Johanna

DLT - Deutscher Landjugend Tag3rd – 5th July 2009

The DLT is the national gathering of all the Landjugend clubs in Germany. It is the equivalent of our National AGM but only takes place every 2 years. It is held at a different location in Germany every time and this year’s DLT was held at the Hohenlohe Arena in Baden-Wurttemburg.

To get to the DLT we boarded the “Sonderzug” (special train) in Hamburg. The train journey took 10 hours but the special train was so called because it had a dancing carriage with disco lights, a DJ and 2 bars!

Baden-Wurttemburg

On Saturday morning we attended an agricultural conference and watched some plays about health and then after dinner, we formed the words “Landjugend Wir Furs Land” (Land Youth We Are For The Land) so that we could be photographed from a plane for a newspaper.

In the afternoon, everybody went on a different excursion in the local area and I visited the historic town of Schwaebisch Hall. On return, we again danced the night away!

On arrival at the Hohenlohe Arena on Friday night, after partying for 10 hours on a train, we continued to party into Saturday morning!

On Sunday morning we attended a church service at the Arena before boarding the “Sonderzug” to go back to Hannover.

Our 3rd host, Lena lives in Thueste, in the Ith Hills below Hannover. This area of Lower Saxony has large plains with hills at either side. There are a larger variety of crops grown here than in Ostfriesland, such as wheat, barley, potatoes and sugar beet as well as maize. There are not as many dairy herds in this area but there are beef farms and intensive pig and chicken farms.

Lena

Lena’s family farm Fleckvieh Cattle, a breed that originated in 1830 by crossing Simmental Cattle with the cattle from the Bavarian Hills to create a duel purpose breed that has good milk yields and a good carcase.

This is Lena’s family’s combine. The majority of farmers in the area use machinery of a similar age to this as their farms are so small. Lena’s tractor is 40 years old but if they replaced it they would have to replace every item of machinery that goes on it which would be far too expensive for the size of the farm.

Things we did during our stay in Thueste...

We visited Castle Marienburg.

We went swimming in an outdoor swimming lake.

We visited a wildlife park.

We visited a John Deere dealer’s.

We watched a play about the Pied Piper in Hamlyn.

We visited 2 farms belonging to member’s of Lena’s Landjugend Club.

We had a look around a mountain bike manufacturer’s.

We visited a prestigious riding school.

We visited a chicken farm.

We visited a pig farm.

We went bowling.

We saw the local “Water

Tree”.

We had a couple of barbeques.

We went to the cinema to see

Ice Age 3.

We also visited a Bio-Gas plant. This plant is used to power 1500 houses. It cost £2m to build, not including the cost of the land! The best way to understand how bio-gas works is to think of a bio-gas plant as “a giant cow”.

Maize silage clamp

At the plant we visited they put 35 tonnes of maize and silage into the “mouth” of the “giant cow” every day. They are also trying wheat as the price is so low at the minute.

The “mouth” of the “giant cow”!

They let a bit of this silage through into the first of 3 tanks every hour. In this tank is pig muck which contains bacteria’s that replicate those found in a cow’s stomach. This causes the silage to ferment. The temperature in the tank is regulated with water to keep it the same temperature as a cow’s stomach and keep the bacteria alive and functioning.

There are two tanks in which the silage ferments and it swaps between the two like food passing through a cow’s four stomachs. This process produces methane or “Bio-Gas” which is extracted from the tanks through pipes. From this whole process, you get 20% Bio-Gas and 80% waste.

Engine room

Engine

Control room

Bio-gas plants are controlled by computers. This computer screen shows the whole plant and it tells the operator the temperature in the tanks, the kW of the engines and whether all the fans are working.

Silage clamps First tank Second tank

Third tank

This tank stores the waste product, slurry, until it is needed.

The plant we visited used Bio-gas to power all their machinery and they also used the excess hot air from the engines to dry wood, wheat, maize and barley by connecting pipes from the engine room to their trailers.

Our last weekend...

We went to the Tarmstedter Austellung, the largest agricultural show in North Germany.

On Saturday night, we stayed over in Hamburg and so we got chance to have a look around Hamburg before we flew home.

Hamburg’s famous Rathaus (town hall).

Hamburg is the second largest shipping port in Europe and houses the headquarters of many major shipping companies. There is a network of waterways throughout the city from days gone by and there are more bridges in Hamburg than Venice and Amsterdam combined!

I would like to thank the NFYFC Discovery Programme giving me the opportunity to travel to Germany. It fulfilled and exceeded my expectations by far. As well as experiencing another culture and seeing how farming differs from England, I have grown as a person, becoming much more mature and self confident. The best opportunity the trip provided for me was the chance to improve my German by putting it into practice with native speakers. Over the course of the fortnight I met some brilliant people and the only negative of the whole trip were the many goodbye’s!

I would recommend Discovery to every Young Farmer in England and Wales. It is a cheaper, safer and much more interesting way to see a country than going on an ordinary holiday. By spending two weeks living with the people whose country you are visiting, you get a true insight as you get to see and experience every aspect of their country, not just the tourist attractions.

And don’t worry if you can only speak English, just remember, we all smile in the same language!!!

Thank you!