People & Opinions
Jan Merks: "Animal welfare regulations are necessary to meet the needs of society"
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Genetics´Added Value B.V. is a company in The Netherlands providing consultancy worldwide, especially in the field of pigs genetics, along training and management support The company combines the expertise of its founder Dr Jan Merks, with the expertise of specialists around the world.
Dr Alfred Schreiberhuber: "Our most important capital is the soil"
Interview by Erminia Cialeglio, DLG
Dr Alfred Schreiberhuber from Austria has been a DLG member since 1995 and farms in the Traunviertel region of the federal province of Upper Austria. The chronicles of the Schreiberhuber Farm & Forest Estate encompass the closely intertwined histories of three farms, family-owned for more than 700 years. From Plassgut, the ancestral seat, the Plassgut at Ansfelden, the Auhof Residence at Kremsmünster and the Summerauerhof at St. Florian are administered.
Sali Morris: Wheels for optimum productivity
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
DLG Member Mrs Sali Morris from Great Britain works for moveero ltd, the leading manufacturer of off-highway steel wheels which supplies major global OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). While customers in the agricultural sector tend to develop bigger and faster machines, moveero aims to provide the technical expertise that will help deliver products that support this.
DLG dual leadership: Dr Lothar Hövelmann & Freya von Czettritz
Interview by Daphne Huber, DLG Mitteilungen
The DLG (German Agricultural Society) is getting a new dual leadership with Dr Lothar Hövelmann and Freya von Czettritz. Dr Hövelmann has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of DLG in addition to his function as Managing Director of the Agricultural Technical Centre. Freya von Czettritz is the new CEO of DLG-Holding GmbH and is responsible for the economic activities of DLG.
Arnold Czech: Profit from the experts' knowledge
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Arnold Czech from Poland is DLG member since 2005 and his particular challenge is to improve the cultivation of potatoes. Therefore he runs experimental plots in cooperation with Wroclaw University. What he appreciates about his DLG membership is the opportunity to exchange knowledge with professional colleagues. He also enjoys attending DLG events to get informed.
Franz Kastenhuber: Appreciate the small ideas
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Franz Kastenhuber from Austria has been a member of the DLG since 2002. At the DLG events, as a practical farmer and teacher of crop production at the Agricultural Training Centre Lambach, the exchange of ideas with professional colleagues is important to him.
Lutz Förster: Efficient farming in Canada
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
DLG member Lutz Förster emigrated with his parents in 2009. In Canada, he appreciates the practically orientated faming with little bureaucracy.
Christoph Graf Grote: Finding the right partners
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
DLG member Christoph Graf Grote was born in Germany and first came to the UK as a student. This was the beginning of a very international career with activities around agriculture in many countries all over the world.
Mateusz Ciasnocha: Regenerative farming in Poland
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Mateusz Ciasnocha from Poland has been a member of the DLG since 2017. He is an active farmer and Executive Director of European Carbon Farmers. His mission is to preserve farmers' income by putting them at the centre of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
Dr Martin Kropp: Managing innovations in animal nutrition
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
DLG Member Martin Kropp from Switzerland joined the German Agricultural Society in 1996. He is responsible for the Animal Nutrition Business of ADM in Europe, Middle East and Africa and appreciates the DLG with its exhibition EuroTier as a platform for exchange of experiences.
Harald Pinter: An Austrian formula for efficient organic farming
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Streamlining the wide crop rotations traditional in organic farming and introducing 20-species cover crops has increased efficiency and fertility on Harald Pinter’s farm. In fact, this long-time DLG member from Austria has pared the rotation on his arable enterprise down to two main crops: legumes followed by cereals.
Dmitrii Davidiuk: Microbiological products for farming from Belarus
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Microbiological products for fodder preservation, field application and seed treatment are among the product range of JSC Microbiotics. Successfully selling in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, Dmitrii Davidiuk also plans to expand into the EU.
Felix Lavandier: Direct marketing helps small farm survival in the Grand Duchy
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Felix Lavandier runs an Angus suckler herd and a flock of traditional Luxembourg red-headed “Fox sheep” as well as growing cereals in his 25 ha part-time farming business on fertile land just south of the Ardennes. Key income source is meat sales straight from the farm.
Gary Grossen: 25 years of DLG membership
Interview by Dr Thomas Adolf, DLG
Gary Grossen from Donald, USA, is celebrating his 25th anniversary of DLG membership. His company GK Machine is a manufacturer of high quality equipment, parts and accessories offering a wide range of solutions for agricultural and industrial needs. Since 1976, the aim of GK Machine is to meet and exceed customer expectations.
Dr Wilfried Aulbur: Supporting clients to solve problems
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
DLG member Dr Wilfried Aulbur is a Senior Partner at Roland Berger and is responsible for the firm's global Commercial Vehicle, Construction and Agricultural Equipment business. His main occupation is the influence of new technologies (precision farming, robotics, electrification, autonomous vehicles) on agriculture as well as dealing with questions of operational performance improvements for companies that are active in this area.
Jeen Nijboer: Sustainability must pay off
Interview by Dr. Birthe Lassen, Thünen Institute of Farm Economics, Braunschweig
In the Netherlands, sustainability criteria can have an impact on financing. Rabobank has been gaining experience with this for several years. Jeen Nijboer explains in an interview how this works, which criteria are effective and how it pays off for farmers.
Dr Alexei Ugarov: Manager of Agrokultura
Interview by Dr Olga Hunger, DLG
Dr Alexej Ugarov is a Russian farm management expert who also studied agricultural science in Germany before working for concerns KWS and Südzucker. Now he manages a very large area of farmland some 500 km southeast of Moscow.
Marjan Dolensek: Harvesting energy and hydro electricity
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Marjan Dolensek from Slovenia has been a member of the DLG since 1996. His profession is adviser in agricultural and forestry mechanisation. But he also owns a farm and some forest with special enterprises that include marketing timber as an energy fuel and selling electricity generated by waterpower on his land.
Shaun Groom: Strong interest in agricultural machinery
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Growing up in rural Norfolk in the East of England, Shaun Groom is now the Chairman of the Farm Equipment Council at the Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA). For 28 years he has worked for companies in the farm machinery industry. As a Kaizen philosophy fan and a DLG member since 2016, he appreciates the exchange of experiences with professionals from all over the world.
Mirko Graff: We have a solution for most problems
Interview by DLG
DLG member Mirko Graff and his brother manage their dairy farm with 190 hectares exclusive rangeland, 430 heads of livestock with 250 milking cows combined with a biogas plant and a waste management enterprise for biodegrables in particular.
Markwart von Pentz: "The digitisation picture is far from complete"
By Thomas Preuße, DLG Mitteilungen
For as long as we have been talking about digitisation in agriculture, we have been complaining about the huge gap between wish and reality. We talk about Farming 4.0, but farms mostly stop at automatic control systems. John Deere President Markwart von Pentz explains the steps of digitisation as a jigsaw puzzle in which pieces are gradually added to fit exactly.
Dr. Jörg Zimmermann: Unique solutions for farm logistics
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Hi Tech Installations Ltd. is a company that works as a general contractor for fertilizer storage and blending systems in Western Canada. About two years ago, Dr Jörg Zimmermann and his partner took over the management.
From Hessen to Brazil: Dr Achim Schudt’s non-stop search for sustainable systems
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Dr Schudt became a DLG member in 2005. This agricultural innovator, who has spent much of his working life in Brazil, sees the organisation as an important bridge between academia, politics, the public and practical farming.
Johanna Ratia from Finland: Safe fuel storage for farmers
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
“Our mission is safe storage of energy”, sums up Johanna Ratia from Farmtools Oy, a familiy company specialising in fuel tanks and based in Ylihärmä, Finland.
Supply chain law: Affirming the failure of a development aid policy
By Professor Otto A. Strecker, chairman of AFC Consulting Group AG and honorary professor of agricultural economics at Bonn University
A supply chain law is not the right way to achieve fair production standards worldwide as even the minimum standards vary from country to country. But companies need legal security. So how can fair standards be secured?
Young-Min Kim: The DLG-South Korea connection
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
For over 10 years now, this DLG member and senior manager with the Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry has promoted Agritechnica and EuroTier in his Far East homeland. Not only that, Young-Min Kim and his team organise and guide groups of agricultural industry experts to these major events, his organisation being official DLG travel partner in South Korea. The aim: achieving a good selection of specialists for all aspects of farming.
Welcome to the new reality
Opinion: The future of the farm business
During the corona crisis the US technology index Nasdaq wrote the winner’s history. Boosted by Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook it soared over the 11,500 point mark for the first time (August 2020), with a momentum more trend of the century than momentary flash. The corona pandemic accelerates the shrinking of traditional business models.
Older topics
Eva Branta: Forestry and farming investment in Europe’s northeast
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Eva Branta is a DLG member from Latvia and a real estate consultant advising throughout the Baltic States where she sees interesting capital potential in both timber and farm production. So far, most of the business occupying her AQ AgriEstate company is carried out in Latvia where she advises international and domestic clients on agricultural investments and farmland management.
Dmytro Yakovenko promotes biological solutions for better crop production efficiency
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Ukraine’s leading producer and exporter of biological products for use in nutrition, soil fertility and plant protection plans to expand into the EU market. The company is BTU-CENTER and its head of international sales, Dmytro Yakovenko, became a DLG member in 2019.
Romanian crop scientist Sorin Vatca: Preparing for climate change
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Plants themselves can respond very well to the changing conditions that confront them, believes plant physiologist Sorin Vatca, assistant professor in crop science, Cluj Napoca University for Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV). This DLG member recognises changing weather conditions as a major challenge confronting crop scientists.
Günther Griessmair: New perspectives for farming being created!
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
The Italian province of South Tyrol is home to farm machinery repair specialist Günther Griessmair. He finds an ideal way of »Keeping an eye on what’s happening over the edge of my own plate«, is through the monthly DLG-Mitteilungen magazine. »I’ve been a DLG member since 2012 and also value the DLG test reports and naturally all the events organised for DLG members«.
Professor Milan Tosic: Over 50 years promoting international farming progress
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Farming being his lifelong fascination, he studied in Sarajevo and Belgrade, continuing the internationalism of his upbringing by forming his first connections with western Europe with a practical semester on a large estate in Germany. Milan Tosic has a master’s degree in agricultural engineering and gained a doctorate at the University of Bonn. His thesis: “The mechanisation of sugar beet growing in Eastern Europe”.
Farmer Markus Schieber: Agritechnica ideas aid a large-scale crop enterprise in Hungary
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
From the family farm near Schwäbisch Hall in German Baden-Württemberg to an expansive arable enterprise over 1000 km away in Baja, Hungary: this was the route followed 25 years ago by Markus Schieber and his father in the search for better crop growing opportunities.
Maren Ebinger - Veterinarian in Argentina
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Argentinian veterinarian Maren Ebinger specialises in dairy herd health and nutrition. This avid reader of DLG newsletters is also an expert cross-country driver......
An engineer from the North: Lars Blackstad Kristensen
By Dietrich Holler
It’s almost 20 years now since Lars Blackstad Kristensen first worked in Germany. This mechanical engineering graduate is employed by the Danish construction machinery manufacturer Hydrema and cooperates with the DLG Test Center for Machinery & Farm Inputs at Groß-Umstadt.
Greg Smith - CEO of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Greg Smith has been CEO of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association since 2012. Established in 1847, the RNAA is one of the eight UK associations and societies with a "Royal" prefix and runs a number of agricultural shows and events at a 150 ha showground, the biggest of which is the two-day Royal Norfolk Show. Mr Smith describes his job simply as turning strategy into action, primarily to support agriculture.
Swiss farmer Mario Baumgartner: Where caring for the countryside is crucial
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
The family farm structure in Swiss agriculture means that monoculture isn’t usual. Instead, a good healthy crop rotation is encouraged, says Mario Baumgartner who has been a DLG member for four years now. He values the up-to-date information available on market developments and technology advances, as well as the opportunities for learning more about all aspects of farming.
Jorge Temer Cuevas: Ideas from the "Old World" aid agriculture in Chile
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Jorge Temer Cuevas’ company is based at Victoria in the middle of Chile. Servicios Agromalleco Spa is a major agricultural machinery dealership there. This businessman is also proud to be a member of the DLG.
Tero Mikkola from Finland harvests heat
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
»As profitability in farming becomes increasingly difficult to achieve, we’ve concentrated more on the heat production sector«, says Tero Mikkola who also farms niche crops and is convinced of the advantages of diversification.
Hubertus Gay: From German farm to the OECD in Paris
By Erminia Ciarleglio, DLG
Since 2014 Dr Gay is in the agriculture and trade department of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, specialising in the coordination of the annual OECD-FOA Agricultural Outlook.
He’s a farmer’s son from north Germany und his brother is now in charge of the family farm.
Johannes Weber: Organic pork producer from Austria
By Erminia Ciarleglio
DLG member and farmer Johannes Weber specialises in the production of organically managed pigs. On two farms he produces weaners that are passed on to contract feeders. All pigs are then processed and sold as bio pork products. The Weber farms also produce organic pig feed. Another enterprise is collection and composting of green waste.
Peter Nation: Chief Executive New Zealand National Fieldays Society
Interview by Erminia Ciarleglio
The company is the New Zealand National Fieldays Society Inc. An elected board governs the New Zealand National Fieldays Society, driving the future direction of the organisation, its charitable activity and its flagship event – Fieldays.
Dr Noor Zafira from Malaysia trains the food engineers of the future
By Erminia Ciarleglio
In DLG’s worldwide membership are experts not only in growing food, but also specialists in processing it. Additionally, there are members whose main interest is the design and construction of the machinery and factories involved in the output of high quality, nutritious and hygienic foodstuffs.
Pedro Madero: We help dairy farmers to improve their business
By Erminia Ciarleglio
Pedro Madero is CEO/president of “Madero Equipos de Ordeño” company and “Madero Dairy Systems” Group, with headquarters and offices in Mexico, USA, China, Puerto Rico, with distribution dealers in Spain, Chile, Rusia. The group is dedicated to produce and develop equipment, solutions and systems for large commercial dairy farms.
What do US farmers and German farmers have in common?
By Rainer Winter
Interview with Tricia Braid, Director of Communications, Illinois Corn Growers Association/Illinois Corn Marketing Board. She is responsible for the communications, marketing, and PR plans of both corn associations and acts as ICGA and ICMB’s spokesperson, managing issues and evaluating programming for its effectiveness.
Member profile: Shapovalov Aleksander Germanovich
CJSC “Malkom Corporation” is a company with two main business segments. The first is the trade-purchasing activity on selling machinery, seeds, plant protection products and fertilizers. The second area is the agricultural production itself, that is cultivation of the following crops.
Member profile: Antti Ala-Talkkari
An export-oriented machinery manufacturer from Finland gets early news on market trends through the DLG
Walk around the outdoor machinery exhibits of both Agritechnica and Eurotier on Hanover’s exhibition grounds and you cannot miss the wide range of biofuel boilers and heating systems – but also mounted snow blowers and similar municipal and agricultural equipment – from Veljekset Ala-Talkkari Oy based in Finland Lapua. This company specialises in applying the latest technology for its products which include heating plants for domestic (30 to 990 kW capacity) and industrial applications (500 to 2000 kW).
Member profile: Frederick Nomayo
Nigerian farmer and DLG member wants more DLG presence to help with farm mechanisation in his part of Africa
Frederick Nomayo is chairman and managing director of Nomayo Farms Nigeria Ltd, based in Benin City, the capital of Edo state in southern Nigeria. He sees his DLG membership, DLG exhibitions and the organisation’s publications in particular as key information sources for agricultural business success in his country.