Fendt presented the new C-Series combines in 2012. This year, the farming businesses in Brandenburg will be using the agricultural machines for the first time in harvesting. The Agrar GmbH Kraatz in Gransee and the Neugro Landwirtschaft & Dienste GmbH, Großgottschow, two agricultural enterprises in the Ruppiner Land, report.
His passion is pens. How many there are, he doesn’t exactly know. “Ten thousand, maybe,” smiles Andreas Schmidt and opens a few drawers in his office, in which they lie next to each other in all colours and sizes. He took over both the collection as well as the office from his father in 2004. He continues to maintain the collection precisely, clearly arranged and systematically. Characteristics that are also important for managing an agricultural enterprise.
In 2004, Andreas Schmidt also became the Managing Director of the Agrar GmbH Kraatz in Gransee. The town lies north of Berlin in the area called Ruppiner Land. The company cultivates 1,440 ha on the sandy soil that is typical for Brandenburg with soil values between 25 and 40 points. Kraatz is a street village with about 240 inhabitants and is marked by farming and animal husbandry. Andreas Schmidt is driving in his car on the main street, which is called Lindenstraße. The tall, slender man drives past the company’s filling station to the fields, where his colleagues are just threshing oilseed rape. “We planted 200 ha of oilseed rape this year and are in the last phases of the harvest. The yields with 38 dt/ha are good,” he informs.
In addition to the farmland and grassland, the enterprise also has 330 dairy cows with offspring and a biogas facility. Since five years, Schmidt has also been operating as a contractor, who only drives Fendt tractors: five 820 Vario, one 415 Vario and a 936 Vario. With the combination of farming and contracting businesses, the machines can be optimally utilised. “Besides, it is pretty impressive, when you present yourself to customers with a green Fendt fleet,” he argues, while he drives from the road onto a nearly completely harvested oilseed rape field. The Fendt engineering, which is known for its reliability, efficiency and economy, helps to give the service provider a good image.
Says Andreas Schmidt calmly, who has the responsibility over some 1,000 ha of grain, oilseed rape and maize and always keeps an eye on everything. Just like his pen collection. In addition, he also receives support from the Fendt dealership Agravis Technik Sachsen-Anhalt/Brandenburg GmbH near Fehrbellin in any questions regarding the technology.
Change of scene: Some 15 km north of Kraatz in Großwoltersdorf, the combines are getting ready for operation on the grounds of the Neugro Landwirtschaft & Dienste GmbH. Steffen Arendt, Head of Plant Production at the agricultural enterprise, walks nonchalantly across the concrete yard, which is bordered by administrative buildings, garages and warehouses. “The name Neugro is a combination of the names of the towns of Neuglobsow and Großwolterdorf, the two Agricultural Production Cooperatives (LPG, former East Germany) from which the Neugro Landwirtschaft & Dienste GmbH 1991 was created,” he clarifies and watches how combine operator Karsten Zell climbs into his Fendt 6335 C and drives off.
Steffen Arendt rules over 1,225 ha of farmland and grassland of the Neugro GmbH, and more than 1,200 ha, which the agricultural business cultivates as a contractor. Six and a half years ago, the young man from Lower Saxony, moved to the Ruppiner Land. He had justcompleted his agricultural studies in Osnabrück. An EU funded project aimed at promoting successors of large East German agricultural farms interested him. He planned on a one-year apprenticeship. He has stayed until today. “I can realise my ideas here and decide freely. Furthermore, the work is very practical,” he says backing up his decision. There is no question that the good cooperation with Harald Zemke, the Managing Director of the agricultural company, did the rest.
“We have been driving Fendt tractors since 1999. This is now our first Fendt combine. It is a key machine. That is why the quality and reliability is very important. It only runs 250 to 300 hours a year, but if it doesn’t work then, we have a really big problem,” explains Steffen Arendt (left), Production Manager Plant Production at Neugro Landwirtschaft & Dienste GmbH, Großwoltersdorf.
The company in Großwoltersdorf, who has been driving tractors from Fendt since 1999, bought the new Fendt C-Series combine mainly for one important reason: they need good, high-quality straw for their 200 mother cows, which are taken from the pastures into the stable in the winter for calving. The agricultural enterprise stores most of the grain themselves, so they can sell it directly at a later time. With 800 ha, rye is the main crop on the farm. Oilseed rape, winter barley and triticale are also cultivated there.
“We have threshed 200 ha up to now and are very satisfied with the threshing quality of the new C-Series,” sums up Arendt. He praises the low losses, the good visibility from the cab and the working comfort, which easily allows him to spend ten to twelve hours in the combine. Arguments in favour of the combine from the Fendt factory in Breganze, Italy. With Holger Beuster, head of the branch office of the Agravis Technik GmbH in Fehrbellin, and Daniel Wolf, AGCO Area Manager Harvesting East, Harald Zemke even already visited the factory in Southern Europe in the spring of 2013. And he is enthusiastic. “But another very important prerequisite for working with Fendt machines is the excellent relationship with the Agravis team in Fehbellin,” emphasises Steffen Arendt, who is on his way with his SUV to the winter barley fields, where he will take over for Karsten Zell, so he can take a break from threshing.
A thick cloud of dust is thrown up behind the Fendt 6335 C combine as it brakes. “We have good harvesting conditions,” says Arendt, while he climbs into the cab of the combine and quickly disappears into the next barley field with the machine.
Furthermore, we work with five Fendt tractors from the 700 to 900 series and most recently, with a Katana 65 forage harvester.
Furthermore, we work with five Fendt tractors from the 700 to 900 series and most recently, with a Katana 65 forage harvester.
