I always wanted to become a farmer and have been interested in agriculture ever since I can remember.

That is probably because my father was a farmer. I noticed a lot of his daily work in my childhood and helped out whenever I could. I eventually took over the farm and made my dream come true.

I’ve been focused on tillage farming for many years. Until 1994, my family was also engaged in livestock farming, with 25 cows, but as time went by we focused more on crops.

The farmyard in Trier-Ehrang is 3,500sq m. I also have a 750sq m storage shed for grain and crop storage.

The farm extends to 180ha in all, of which 157ha are cultivated arable land, all owned by me. The rest of the land is under grass, which I partly use for myself, but also lease to horse owners for example.

Currently I grow 32ha of maize, of which 8ha are corn maize and 24ha silage maize. I also manage 24ha of winter oilseed rape, which is used to produce edible oil.

In addition, there are 51ha of rye and 50ha of wheat on the farm.

I sell the majority of rye and wheat to Prümtaler Mühlenbäckerei, which uses the flour for pastries and sells them mainly in the weekly market in the region.

At the moment, I can sell wheat for about €17.50 per 100kg (€175/t) and rye for €18.50 per 100kg (€185/t).

The prices are considerably lower than in the past. Over 10 years ago, I earned about €30 per 100kg (€300/t) for both rye and wheat.

Farm payments

Currently I receive direct farm payments of €240/ha from the EU, which will probably get reduced due to the potential cuts to the CAP. This will become a big problem for smaller farmers in bad soil locations in Germany.

The fact that I am operating in a good valley location with fertile soils and other good conditions make it not that bad for me.

Nonetheless, you have to consider what and how much you can cultivate after a reduction of financial support by the EU.

Weather

The weather often poses an issue. Generally speaking, drought has been a big problem in recent years. But this year high water levels, appearing for the first time since 10 years, flooded about 80ha of my farmland.

The issue is inconsistent rainfalls. Some weeks there is no rain at all and other weeks we have several litres of rain for consecutive days.

In the coming days, I will need to re-sow the areas that were flooded.

Besides that, I treat the crops with liquid fertiliser.

In the next weeks, I will spread sewage sludge on the fields and adopt maintenance measures such as weed control and fungicide.

It is not that easy to reconcile leisure time with my job as a farmer. As I am a winter sportsman, I primarily take my holiday in the cold season. During this short time I can tune out from farming for a while.