—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Septembers, 1977
102
German and Pa. farm practices aren’t alike
By JOANNESPAHR
CHRISTIANA, Pa.-For
many farmers of Penn
sylvania Deutsch descent;
Germany is the motheriand
the old country-the an
cestral home they’ve always
longed to visit but never will.
However, for Christoph
Weber, age 23, who is now
residing near Christiana in
southern Lancaster Countv.
Germany is home, and the
p>ace to which he will be
returning in another month
or so with tales of the United
States and its agriculture.
The tall, lanky German is
on exchange to the United
States through the
cooperative efforts of the
German Farmers’ Union
and the Future Farmers of
nerica. Arriving in
ashington D.C. on June 29,
- . s scheduled amount of
lane in this county was three
r icnths, a span of time which
i.. slowly drawing to a close.
I jfore he leaves, however,
he will become a bona fide
tourist and will travel
around the country, seeing
the USA m general with
other exchange students
from his nome country.
At present, he is living
with Mr. and Mrs. Gerald
Metzler, Christiana Rl.
Gerald is a 1976 American
Farmer who is now in
partnership with his father,
J. Robert Metzler, on a 150
acre dairy farm near Atglen.
Metzler, himself, was an
exchange student to Swit
zerland through the FFA, so
the two have common
ground on which to stand and
communicate with each
other, as well as love of
farming to share.
However, there are basic
differences between the two
men. Initially, Christoph
was not raised on a farm. He
grew up in Koln, Germany,
and is now a student at the
University of Bonn, studying
agriculture with a major in
animal production. Weber
has hopes of starting his own
farm, although he says that
many agriculture students
are not able to do this. In
stead, many ag majors begin
working for feed or fertilizer
companies rather than
actually tilling the soil.
“It doesn’t happen very
often that an outsider can
start farming,” says
Christoph with a good
command of the English
language. “Farmers love
their jobs and the family
farms stay together
forever.”
However, he does tell of a
rather unique method in
which outsiders do acquire
farmland.
“If no one m the family is
interested, sometimes they
will give you a farm,” he
explains in earnest. There is
one catch, however. In
return for the farm, the new
owner pays for the living
expenses of the retiring
farmers for the rest of their
lives, and when they die, if
they have children, the farm
recipient must pay for the
children, as well.
On the other hand, if an
aspiring young farmer does
have a chance to buy
acreage, the per cent of
interest on loans in Germany
is much lower than here
three or four per cent
“But, you must have some
money, yourself, to begin
with,” cautions Christoph.
Naturally, after living and
working in Lancaster
Countv, Christoph has some
definite impressions of
farming in the area.
Initially, says Christoph,
“it is easier to farm here.”
On the average, Americans
have more land per farm
than the Germans do. The
mean in Germany, ac
cording to Weber, is about 25
hectares or 62 acres. The
milk prices are about the
same, and so is the degree to
which farmers have
mechanized their
operations.
There are many dif
ferences, however. For one
thing, Germans' don’t have
extra fields for hay. Instead,
they make this crop from
their pasturelands.
Christoph says the pastures
are better kept in Germany
than they are here, and that
they are smaller, but that
fertilizer is used on them to
increase yield.
They also do noi feed
steers. Instead, bulls are fed
inside on a corn silage-chop
ration for more efficiency.
One breed of beef cattle that
they don’t raise is purebred
Aberdeen Angus, which
Christoph says is mot as
efficient as other breeds.
The Germans prefer a
cross of three breeds. They
like a Black Holstein-Angus
cross, and in the next
generation, they go to a
Charolais cross. In the
southern part of Germany,
Simmental is also raised.
In the dairy industry,
Christoph does say that the
American dairy herds are
better than the German’s
because they only began
importing bulls about eight
or 10 years ago. According to
Weber, Ivanhoe Star is a
favorite stud.
He also adds that for a
herd size of 50 animals, the
Germans commonly build
parlors, a practice he had
not seen done in the county to
this point.
Weber also noted that
Germans do not build the
“high silos” we enjoy here.
Instead, they prefer trench
silos.
In reference to the swine
industry, he pointed out that
there aret'no red pigs” in
Germany, and that Hamp
shire is one of the preferred
breeds.
On the whole, ham is
Christoph Weber, 23, is on exchange from
Germany to the United States through the Future
Farmers of America and the German Farmers’
Union. He is staying with Gerald Metzler,
Christiana, a 1976 American Farmer, who is in
cheaper than beef in Weber’s
country, so the Germans
enjoy this meat more
frequently than they do beef
at the dinner table.
In sizing up the contrasts,
Christoph has one broad
conception of American
farming which most farmers
would not willingly accept,
and in fact, might try to
refute at first. According to
Christoph, American far
mers are “too wasteful.”
He backs his statements
up with facts, ones that are
hard to dispute.
For instance, he points out
that we have four times as
much land as the Germans,
yet we don’t utilize it to the
fullest. For instance,
because they fertilize more,
m a good year the German
will get 80 bushels of wheat
per acre, a figure that
overshadows our production.
And, Christoph points out,
we’re wasteful with feed.
In the Summer it is the
German practice to feed
only shortfeed and not com
silage, because, according to
Christoph, “the animals get
enough energy from the
pasture.”
And, he says, the Germans
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partnership with his father, J. Robert, on a 150
acre dairy farm. Christoph has been pitching im
with the work ever since he arrived on the farm in
the beginning of October.
only spread manure two
times a year-in the Spring
and Fall. They let it
decompose and then they
spread it on the fields, a
practice which Christoph
says puts more humous in
the soil.
angle rear section to reduce hair
pmnmg down-tangled condi
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Ones prove how the only way to
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the Spring
The
rasing rower
A in Fuming
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Phone 215-536-1935
215-536-7523
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Shartlesville, PA
215-488-1025
H. Daniel Wenger, Prop
So, there’s no doubt about
it, Christoph will have some
new agriculture experiences
to tell about when be goes
home, which was his aim
when he decided to explore
American agriculture.
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