Our farm, Humpelhof, has been owned by my family since 1776. I decided to become a farmer very early, I was practically born for this job.

I farm together with my wife Renate and my parents also actively support us. Our four children are still in education. We employ one employee year-round and one intern during the summer. We keep 115 Holstein-Friesian cows and about 110 heifers. We have 65ha of agricultural land, 15ha of forest, 10ha of permanent grassland and 55ha of arable land.

The arable land is made up of 25ha of silage maize, 5ha of corn maize, 20ha of grass clover and 5ha of wheat.

At the moment, preparations for maize seed are in progress, as well as the maintenance of grassland and the application of liquid manure.

We expect the first cut at the beginning of May, which is a bit later than in previous years.

We sell our milk to Berglandmilch, Austria’s biggest dairy group. The milk price is 34.3c/l at the moment.

The male calves are sold for €115 to a veal farmer when they are two weeks old. Breeding cattle are sold via auction with the cattle breeders’ association.

Staff management

One of the most challenging parts of my work is the good management of staff. I mostly value the daily changing challenges, the diverse work and the possibility to largely make decisions freely.

We cultivate our farm very intensively, as we want to achieve a high output of our animals and a great quality for our products. To achieve this, we are willing to expend a lot of effort, because only a business which generates a high turnover can result in good profits. There is potential for improvement at many points, but that is what makes work so exciting.

New technologies

New technologies and machines make work a lot less exhausting and can complete trivial jobs more precisely, but often only save a little time. Our most recent investment in modern technology was a heat and health monitoring system called Heatime® HR System. Currently, we are considering buying a machine which automatically pushes fodder to the cows.

Concerns

What I am concerned about is the rising influence of NGOs.

Professional arguments and logic count for very little nowadays. Opinion makers and subjective feelings are more trusted than experts.