It is early morning on a Thursday October 13th 2022 and a team of foreign experts including science Journalists who visited Berlin Germany on agricultural fact finding visit set off to farmer fields in East Germany.

After one hour drive towards Poland boarder where most farmers are located, the team is welcomed by an organized farming system where farmers demarcate the land for different types of farming commodities.

These include growing of Canola for processing cooking oil, wheat, barley used both as wheat flour and barley flour for human consumption and beer making for the latter, sugar beet,  maize mainly as animal feed, oats and Irish potatoes,

Most farmers are rearing cattle both for beef processing and dairy including rearing of chicken and goose.

Backgrounds

Germany's agricultural sector is among the four largest producers in the European Union. Other Countries are Poland, Ukraine and Italy.

In order to feed the more than 200 million farm animals, around 50 percent of farmland is made up of grassland and arable land that is used for feeding purposes.

In the flat terrain of northern Germany and especially in the eastern portions, cereals and sugar beets are grown. 

Elsewhere on more hilly terrain and even on mountainous land, farmers prow vegetables, milk, pork and beef production.

Fruit orchards mainly oranges and apple and vegetable farms surround almost all large cities.

German agriculture netted almost 41 billion euros in revenue in 2020. That same year, when broken down by segment, mixed agriculture was the most profitable, followed by agricultural services and grain cultivation which include pulses and oilseeds commonly known as canola.

It is also notable that farmers in Germany are inherited because once the ancestors owned farms, they would introduce their children to do the same for purposes of Continuity.

As such Seeds of Gold had the chance to talk to two farmers one rearing cattle for beef and growing wheat and barley for fodder and another small scale farmer rearing chicken and goose on free range including keeping cattle for beef and below are the details.

Organic Farmer

How he became a farmer

Michael Chickowsky is a farmer located in Seinhotel JiameI village, East Germany and he owns 40 hectares of farm land calling himself a small scale organic farmer. He purchased the farm from an old lady who owned 50 hectares of land.

His parents initially lived in Poland but they migrated to Germany in 1945 working as employees in a corporative Union.

What is known in Uganda as a normal system of mixed farming where farmers are growing various crops, rearing chicken on free range and keeping cattle that graze freely on pasture is what farmers in Germany refer to as organic farming.

Michael is a nursing officer by profession and he used to work with the Germany Army providing medical services to the Federal army for 23 years.

In 2009 he decided to quit his profession and he left Berlin City to go and purchase 40 hectares of land in East Germany close to the boarder of Holland at 34,000 Euros.

He had a long term girlfriend Kathrin who is now his wife who lured him into farming.

He owned a health centre in Berlin and he decided to give it out to his brother to operate.

In 2010, he started his journey as farmer after constructing beautiful home, offices and slaughter house well equipped.

“I started farming with two cattle a bull and a cow but previously I was breeding horses which did not fetch much income and I abandoned it. I come from a background of my father who practiced bakery and my mother a nursing officer.  We are 8 children and I give thanks to my wife who lured me into farming.  I have 23 year old daughter whose mother refused to give her to me,” he noted.

Michael explained that currently he has about 80 heads of cattle, 750 goose and 200 chicken and his wife does administrative work on farm.

These agricultural commodities are kept in free range system with the chicken having their own corner of loitering around, the goose are all over the grazing land and the cattle are in another corner of grazing land.

He has also a plantation of forest covering 200 square meters and during Christmas season he sells Christmas trees each at 100 euros

The cattle, chicken and goose are not sold live the reason he has his own slaughter parlour which is well equipped. Each year he is able to slaughter between 10-20 heads of cattle and the number of goose is not counted because they produce so fast.

Each cattle has to be marked with a sign to avoid authorities from over taxing the farmer.

The chicken are reared for egg production and each of them lays between 50-60 eggs before they are slaughtered for sale.

Each egg is sold at 50 cent Euros on farm and 200 cent in outdoor sale and he is planning to re-stock the chicken this week where he has already made an order for 200 chicken layers.

Normally he sells 54% of the cattle beef after removing the skin and the bones which are mainly sold for people who have dogs after the bones are processed into food.

On average he is able to obtain 8,000 Euros from the cattle beef sale and the cattle takes 2-3 years to grow with the hugest one weighing 800kg.

Apart from grazing the agricultural commodities on free range, he provides them with food supplements where he purchases cereal grains from fellow farmers which he grinds and mixes it on farmer because he has machinery to do it

This is mainly done during winter when the weather is not favorable and in case of any sickness there is veterinary Doctor readily available for advice and to provide treatment dosage.

It is a requirement that all farmers in the country get certificate to practice farming and he has one for organic farming which is renewed annually at a fee.

Each Kg of meat from goose is sold at 22 euros out of farm but on farm it goes for 12 Euros

He purchases grains between 450 and 500 Euros per ton and he always ensures there is readily available water from a stream where he collects water in underground tank. Each cattle takes 40 litres of water per day.

In his demarcated land, all are fenced using electric wire to prevent thieves and intruders in his farm and he has four dogs guarding the goose and two for the chicken while for the cattle are two.

Despite these investments the good news is that these farmers get subsidies from government but there is the challenge of authorities forcing organic farmers to construct for chicken houses containing outside weather condition, namely lighting like sun with ventilators.

This he says is not right because the chicken go loitering the whole days and going to their house to sleep at night.

On farm tourism

Apart from investing in the farm items, Michael’s farm is a tourist centre where he has constructed two bed room apartments on the roof top of his office and slaughter house;

Most people who want a quiet place outside the city centre come around for vacation on his farm where he charges 700 euros per day and if a person wishes to stay for long, then the charge is subsidized.

He has a hall for weeding parties and fee charged depends on an arrangement between him and party goers.

Conventional farmer

The second farmer Seeds of Gold visited is Mr Heiko Engel mainly keeping cattle in Buchaholz village close to Holland boarder.

What the farmers refers to as conventional farming is where the cattle are kept in a stable and fed indoors.

In total he owns 700,000 hectares of land out of which he is renting 500 from other neighboring farmers who are not utilizing their land.

His farm is inherited from his parents who were farmers who began with working for a cooperative Union and later after saving money, they purchased 8 hectare land from the cooperative union.

Heiko and his late father were both working in the cooperative union and in 1990 they were fired and that is when they began farming by keeping dairy cattle for milk processing where they had 400 dairy cattle on farm.

However when his father died, he took over the farm and with increasing cost of keeping dairy cattle, he abandon the business and switched to keeping cattle for beef.

“Milk prices dropped as low as 16 cents Euros from 32 cents yet feeding the cattle is expensive. Secondly the regulations for keeping Dairy cattle are so tight especially when doing artificial insemination, I must call the regulators and tell them about it and they keep monitoring until the cow has given birth. I am expected to keep young calves separately form grown up ones. At most a farmer is expected to feed a cow that can produce 12,000 litres per year,” he noted.

He explained that the Buhard community used to have a lot of farm land and some people gave out land to his father about 250 hectares on top the 8 hectares which he owned which he used to cultivate in the evening after work.

Later his father established a pig stable and turned it for keeping ducks until 2013.

In the 1980’s he became a mechanic working for the cooperative union until 2015.

He stopped dairy farming in 2015 and started cattle rearing with his brother but along the way his brother opted out and now he is managing the farm with his wife and three children.

Right now he has 140 cross breeds of New Zealand breed which are good for meat production.

He sells the animals for companies dealing in butchery but he ensures a purchased cattle is slaughtered on farm.

If the size of the cattle is medium, a kg of beef is sold at 20 euros but if it is fully grown with the cattle weighing about 800kg, it is sold between 1,200 and 1,400 euros.

The order is made by the butcher who mainly export the beef to France

Michael utilizes most part of the land for growing wheat, barley and Alfalfa for processing hay, silage and grain feed.

Feeding animals and pasture sales

He sells grain feed to input dealers who in turn sell to farmers and each ton goes at 3,500 Euros.

He is able to feed an animal using 4kg of wheat grain per day and 500 tons of barley and Canola is required to feed his animals annually.

He owns tractors, weeders and combined harvesters which are computerized and can be operated using remote control to run across the farm minus a driver.

He purchased his latest combined harvester at 200,000 Euros and tractor at 150,000 Euros.

It is the farmer’s contention that African farmers including Uganda can engage in the type of farming done in Europe and elsewhere. It is matter of saving money to purchase the required equipment and land.