October 2 Lower Saxony

Oct. 2

Today we traveled to Hanover by train and met Jorn Dwehus, CEO of the Farmers Association of Lower Saxony.  Jorn spent some time in America at the University of Nebraska, so he speaks very good English.  He is leaving Saturday for America to participate in the McCloy Fellowship.   

We first went to Jorn's office, and one of his assistants gave us a presentation about Agriculture in Lower Saxony.  Lower Saxony in the largest agricultural region in Germany.  Almost every kind of farming you can think of.  Lots of hogs and chickens, dairy, wheat, potatoes, corn (largely for Bio-fuel), vegetables, and more.  We ate lunch in the cafeteria in the basement, a soup of green beans, potatoes, and sausage, we all thought it was very good.

 From there Jorn drove us to tour a modern dairy farm.  They milk about 500 cows and raise all the calves.  The dairy looked much like an American dairy, Large covered freestall barn with a 40 stall rotary parlor.  The ration consisted largely of grass silage and corn silage with grain and soy.  Much of their income comes from energy production,. The roof of the freestall barn is covered with solar panels and they have a large bio-gas plant on the farm.  Energy production is heavily subsidized.  They sell all the electricity they generate and buy back what they need to operate the farm, because they can buy it for a lower price then they sell it for (sound like government?).  There are also windmills everywhere you look, but none that are on this farm.  It was interesting to hear about some of the regulations they have to comply with.  They would like to add another 300 cows, but they are not allowed to because of the nitrogen that would be emitted into the forests surrounding the farm.  They have tried to mitigate this issue but are unable to.  The manure can all be handled by the bio-fuel plant, so that is not an issue, and they can grow the feed.  The issue is simply the nitrogen emissions into the air that will fall on the forest.

Automatic feed pusher

One happy cow, she has her own back scratcher

Corn silage to feed both the cows and the bio-gas plant

Bio-gas

One of two generators that runs off the gas from the bio-gas plant

40 stall rotary parlor

Next we toured the town of Celle. This is an old town dating back about 700 years.  The three oldest buildings are the castle, the church, and the town hall.  The homes are all very old German style houses, very beautiful and ornate design.  The entire town was untouched by the war, which is unusual for this area.

We had dinner with the Dwehus family (Jorn and his family).  It was very fun to visit with a German family, they have 5 children ranging in age from 20 to 2.  I was intrigued that the older children (15 and 20) were allowed to have beer with the adults, perfectly normal in Germany, They didn't drink as much as the Americans.  We also saw their horse stables.  They board horses for people and have an indoor arena.  (250 Euro/horse/month)  The second daughter loves the horses and now wants to visit Paul and ride the range with him.  We teased the older girls about finding them American farmers to marry.

September 30

Today I arrived in Germany after about 12 hours in the air and a couple layovers.  Somewhere I missed a night.  I arrived at 7:30 in the morning, and it was 11:30 at night back home.  I am very tired now at 9:30. I arrived at the hotel about 10:00, my room was not ready until 2:00 but luckily Robert came the night before, so I was able to rest in his room for a few hours until Raquel arived and it was time to go on our first tour.  Paul was late and missed the tour but he caught up with us later, and went with us on a boat ride on the River Sprie.

I was surprised how many people smoke in Berlin the smell is everywhere, they also seem to eat a lot of meat especially pork.  The old Jewish section of town, at least in parts, is quite run down.  Many buildings still show the effects of the war, bullet holes on the walls and such.  We saw one building where you could see the distinct paint on the outside wall from each room of the building that once stood next to it.  It had been destroyed in the bombing raids.  Very humbling experience to walk through these streets and realize what had once happened right there.

I also learn that most of the houses (apartments) in that part of town from the front look like any apartment building, however they open up behind into wide open back yards with shops and cafes.  Some restored and very nice looking, some just as they were after the war.  Eastern Germany simply did not have the money or the ability and incentive to restore the buildings.  It is just now happening some 60+ years after the war, 23 years after the wall fell.

October 1, 2012 Berlin

Today we spent the day with Brigitte Wenzel  who  works for the DVB (The German version of our Farm Bureau).  Brigitte deals mostly with animal welfare issues and was a McCloy Fellow a few years ago.  We first went to a staff meeting with the DVB; we each introduced ourselves and they all knocked on the table to show appreciation.  The rest of the meeting was in German so we don't know what they were talking about. 

Next, we took a tour of the Bundestag, the German capital building. The office building has the look and feel of a prison, mostly plain concrete.  However the Parliament chamber itself is beautiful, mostly made of glass so as to give the appearance of a very open political process.  Under the building you can still see writing on the walls from the Russian troops when they first arrived in Berlin.  The top of the building is a glass dome, so we walked to the top and had a great view of the city.

From there we went to lunch with the agriculture representatives from the US  embassy.  They work largely on trying to open markets to US products.  The biotech issue is huge; most Germans want nothing to do with US food because of it. Interestingly they will buy Biotech crops (SBM) to feed to livestock, but they will not allow the technology to be planted here.  Research plots have to be guarded to prevent people from destroying the plots, because there is such negative feeling about BT.  They are also concerned that American beef is priced too high.  Germans mostly want premium cuts which are in short supply right now and therefore priced very high.  As a result, Germans are turning to Australian and South American beef which may hurt the US beef market in the long run.

We also went to Brandenburg Gate where President Reagan gave his famous speech and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."  Today the wall is down, and many of the young Germans do not remember it, but the signs of it can still be seen in many areas of the city.  It is humbling to realize what happened in this city.  

This marker shows where the wall stood

In the evening, we had dinner with some representatives from the German Young Farmer program.  I learned that they are concerned about similar issues as we are in America.  How can young people afford to start farming?  People are interested in small local farms and food like in America, but they don't want to pay for it.  

Germans make fun of Americans for wanting to drive everywhere. In Germany you walk a lot, and people in the city ride bikes and use public transportation.  In America we drive the car to get across the street.

Another thing I am learning is that the German people don't drink as much water and liquids as we do in America, but they make up for it by drinking a lot of beer.  Everywhere we go people are drinking beer.     

Germany produces a lot of pork and dairy, however they are dependent on imported feed for the animals, mostly soy from the Americas.