This is a subscriber-only article
Our farm is very versatile. I am a vegetable, fruit, tillage and livestock farmer in Switzerland. At the moment, my main focus is on the production of new disease-tolerant varieties of apples.
The desire to produce healthy foods in an environmentally-friendly way started in my youth. That is why I later decided to study agronomics at the ETH Zurich.
I bought the farm in 1985 and rearranged and modernised it step-by-step since then. Currently, we manage about 10 cattle, 15 sheep, 70 chickens and 15ha of tillage land.
My wife manages the vegetables with two apprentices. One employee handles the main farming with the help of another apprentice. I look after apple breeding and production alongside an intern.
We sell all of our products via direct marketing either on a market stand in the town of Solothurn or in vegetable boxes directly from the farm.
Income from the products form the basis of our business including salaries and new investments. Our great strengths are our top-quality products which are highly valued by our customers and achieving cost-covering prices thanks to direct marketing.
Government payments
When it comes to Government support payments for farmers, Switzerland has a well-developed subsidies system with direct payments. Organic farmers are given additional rewards.
Even though our farm is small, we are very productive. As the amount of direct payments are paid out depending on the size of the farm, they only make up around 15% of our operating income.
We are open to new technologies and machines but in each individual case we carefully consider whether they go against our goals. We refuse genetic modification and types of so-called new reproduction techniques as a matter of principle, but when it comes to energy, we have solar panels on our farm building.
Harvesting and sowing
At the moment, many of the vegetables such as salad, spinach, radish or asparagus are about to be harvested.
In the meantime, many crops are being planted and sowed. Regarding fruits, it is time to put up the bird protection nets.
The biggest challenge we face now is to familiarise our successors for the operational handover in about two years which is running smoothly so far.
The agricultural industry in general has the same issues that are about the same everywhere. Another main challenge is the reliable and permanent supply of our loyal clientele with farm products.
Only sustainable and resource-saving farming is able to provide the world with food. The organic movement does pioneering work.
Whether it succeeds in pushing a general change in thinking is still open in my opinion.
Maybe problems on an apocalyptic scale, such as climate catastrophes for instance, will catch up on us earlier than we think.
Without a regular and sufficient water supply, farming would be impossible for sure.
As is the case with arable farmers my work is characterised primarily by seasonality. In contrast to dairy farmers, there are times where no daily presence is necessary.
When I’m off the farm, I enjoy making music and I’m also highly interested in historical developments in my spare time.
SHARING OPTIONS: