More efficient with state-of-the-art technology
Within a few years, machines from almost all HORSCH product groups gradually moved into the Gießmann farm. Jürgen Gießmann and his son Georg are convinced all along the line. In terraHORSCH, they present their farm.
Today, the Gießmann farm cultivates 600 hectares of arable land as a mere cash crop farm. It was founded in 1991 as a resettlement farm. The location in North Saxony, directly at the border to Saxony-Anhalt, is characterised by its loess soils with an average soil index between 80 and 82 soil points.
In the early days, the farm employed up to six people at times as there also was a bull fattening branch with 100 animals until 2003. However, this has changed considerably. Today, with two family workers and one apprentice, a well-equipped machine park is particularly important during work peaks. Tight time slots are compensated for with powerful machines instead of seasonal labour.
While other regions in Germany had to struggle with massive rainfall and storms this year, the Gießmanns were largely spared. “In the last ten years, rainfall amounted to an average of just over 500 mm, including the dry years of 2018 to 2020. We are in the rain shadow of the Harz. That is both a blessing and a curse,” farm owner Jürgen Gießmann explains. Most of the land has been drained in GDR times and the drainages still work today. This has been a great advantage, especially with the increasing heavy rainfall in recent years. The water can drain off. There is no waterlogging in the fields that could lead to yield losses. While 30 to 40 years ago, the average rainfall was 480 mm, it is now over 500 mm. “Despite the higher rainfall, we have to struggle with dry periods to an increasing degree,” Georg Gießmann says. Although the amount of precipitation has increased, the distribution over the year has become more uneven. Whereas normal rain showers used to be distributed over the year, storms now bring 10 to 20 litres of rain per square metre within half an hour followed by weeks of drought and high temperatures. This was once again the case this year. The grain harvest was brought in dry, followed by a period of rain at the beginning of August. After that there were five weeks of drought, characterised by extreme heat and strong easterly winds when rapeseed was sown. “The consequences can be seen in the winter rapeseed which emerged with a significant delay but has now recovered well,” Georg Gießmann says.
Cash crop cultivation and optimisation
The Gießmanns' main crop is winter wheat, mainly as A wheat on half of the fields. In addition, silage maize is grown for a nearby biogas plant and sugar beet has been grown on a constant area for 33 years. As rapeseed cultivation has been rather difficult in recent years with regard to pest pressure and drought, they decided in 2023 to reduce the area under rapeseed. It was replaced by sunflowers to keep up the share of oilseed crops in the rotation while at the same time coping better with the dry, warm climate. In addition, since this season, they started a co-operation with a neighbouring farm for potato fields to expand the crop rotation.
The land is largely cultivated with the mulch seeding method to preserve resources, particularly with regard to the water balance. The plough is only used where it is really necessary, e.g. for winter barley after winter wheat. However, after having changed the rotation this year, the plan is to do completely without a plough in the future and move towards minimum tillage. To this end, large-scale tests have been set up which showed that soil cover is very advantageous, especially with regard to dry periods. “However, we will not get around deep loosening, especially in crops that require a deeply loosened root horizon. That's why we use two different Terranos on our farm,” Georg Gießmann explains.
Hybrid farming
For the Gießmanns, mechanical plant protection is not only important for sunflowers where they gathered good experiences this year. It all started with a demonstration of the harrow Cura 12 ST. Without any background, a couple of tracks were harrowed in the winter wheat population and the measures the farm usually carries out were continued until the harvest. The surprise came on harvest day when the yield maps of the field were analysed. The yield on the harrowed land was up to one tonne higher. “This was the point where we decided to buy our own Cura to pursue the idea further,” the Gießmanns remember. Since then, they have continued to test how the harrow can be used in an optimum way. While initially only smaller test plots were harrowed, they decided to expand this. Last year, “herbicide-free until harvest” was the idea for one wheat field. The field was prepared with the mulch seeding method and the harvest residues were incorporated well. Because of the difficult seeding conditions last autumn, the first harrowing pass could not be carried out until the beginning of November. In spring, the intensive incrustation caused by the heavy rainfall in the autumn was broken. The last harrowing pass was carried out at the end of March. In the course of the stem extension phase, it was discovered that some of the fumitory and camomile had not been fought efficiently, and the Gießmanns decided to carry out a herbicide treatment. “The test may not have been perfect, but for us, it was a complete success. The wheat variety which is known to be susceptible to all kinds of diseases was very healthy, and we were able to save on fungicide treatment. Moreover, this field is located in a nitrate-polluted area which is why only 80 percent of nitrogen fertilisation was applied in accordance with the fertilisation recommendation. The result speaks for itself: the yield and quality of this field were above this year's average for our wheat fields,” Georg Gießmann explains.
Convinced all along the line
“Starting in 2017 with the delivery of the first HORSCH machine, a Pronto 6 DC, the entire fleet has been converted to the red machines from Schwandorf,” Jürgen Gießmann says.
The HORSCH Centre Sietzsch which opened in 2017 is located in the immediate vicinity of the farm. “They provide an excellent service and expert advice”. At the same time, they had the opportunity to test many machines, test drive them and compare different seeding methods. Important aspects that have contributed to the fact that a large part of the technology now comes from HORSCH. After the purchase of the Pronto 6 DC which is still doing a reliable job, a Joker 6 RT, the Terrano 6.4 GX and the Terrano 3 FX followed. The latter is mainly used for deep loosening of tracks and before rapeseed. Equipped with the ULD points, it loosens at a depth of up to 35 cm without changing the soil horizons. The organic material remains on the soil as a sun protection and compactions are removed so that for example the rape plants can root deeply into the soil without any problems.
The Cura 15 ST and the Maestro 12 CX were added to the machine fleet in 2022. The Maestro was chosen primarily because of the conversion to single-grain rapeseed seeding. Maize, sugar beet and sunflowers will also be singulated - all with a row width of 50 cm. In November, the Gießmanns were once again full of anticipation. At this year's “40 years of HORSCH” event in Schwandorf, they had bought a new Leeb 12 TD crop care sprayer which was delivered a few weeks ago. “It may be a little bit oversized, but we want to take advantage of the ideal point in time and thus bought ourselves some free time,” Georg Gießmann explains. The opted for a larger tank capacity as plant protection measures were postponed to the evening and night hours in recent years because of windy conditions and excessively high temperatures. At the same time, all the nitrogen fertiliser on the farm is applied in liquid form which provides greater efficiency, especially in early spring.
Within seven years, HORSCH machines from almost all product groups moved in with the Gießmanns. “In our region, our farm is rather small, but we are still very well equipped with regard to technology,” Jürgen Gießmann says. Their aim is to make use of the perfect time for all work steps. This is why the farm became very well mechanized with own machines in recent years.
Succession and investments
At present, the division of the work on the farm is relatively clear. Jürgen Gießmann takes on the tasks in the office. This includes daily office work as well as agricultural applications, bookkeeping and rotation planning. Georg is mainly responsible for the arable farming part from seeding to harvest logistics. However, his responsibilities also include the social media presence and, above all, digitalisation on the farm, e.g. yield evaluations and the planning of site-specific seeding and fertiliser maps. They are supported by one apprentice. A major step that will be taken in the next few years is the succession of the farm. Georg will be taking over the business from his father, something that has always been clear to him. “For me, nothing else has ever entered the equation. It was clear to me right from the start that I wanted to do it,” he says. As far as the size of the farm is concerned, no changes are planned for the time being: “We don't want to expand. We prefer quality over quantity,” Jürgen Gießmann says.
With regard to technology, things are a little bit different. More machines already are on the wish list. For one thing, a hoe, the Transformer 6 VF which the farm had rented this year, has convinced them completely and will be integrated into the farm machinery in the new season. Moreover, they also had the opportunity to test a Focus and were positively surprised. Compaction horizons could be removed and soil additives as well as seed could be applied in one single pass. This allowed for saving work steps and making better use of the soil moisture. “Being a small farm, we want to do without additional external labour. This is why we really like concepts like this.”
“Together we are strong” is how the Gießmanns describe their cohesion and they will continue to pull together in the coming years. They want to continue to optimise work processes and test and implement new ideas.