XtraBlatt issue 01-2016

1 

2016 

XtraBlatt 

IN OUR OWN HANDS 

Launch of the sales company 

Krone France SAS 

NAVIGATING THE FUTURE 

Interview with Philip von dem 

Bussche, Chairman of the Krone 

Advisory Board 

KRONE 

INTERNATIONAL 

Farming reports from Italy, France and Germany

MUSEUM 

Krone museum 

A new use was quickly found for 

the empty LVD (farm machinery 

sales and service) offices and 

workshop in Spelle town centre: 

The Krone Group now uses the 

buildings as Krone Museum, officially 

inaugurated in March 2016. 

Here, for instance, visitors can now 

view historical Krone machinery. 

2

Editorial 

DEAR READER, 

Once again, the summer issue of our “XtraBlatt” lies 

before you, hot from the press. One focus of this issue 

is presentation of a number of foreign projects initiated 

by Krone recently, including the establishment of 

our new daughter company, Krone France. We are very 

happy, and also a little proud that from now on we can 

directly provide our services for the largest agricultural 

market in Europe after Germany. Hereby, however, 

we do not want to miss sincerely thanking Amazone 

for successfully including our products with their own 

machinery range in their sales program over the past 

20 years. You may perhaps ask: “Why, then, this new 

solution?” The answer is simple. Over the years, the 

product portfolios of both manufacturers have become 

so complex that it is now impossible for the teams on 

the spot to know and support all the details of both 

programs with the intensity needed to guarantee one 

hundred percent optimum customer advice. And this 

exactly is what differentiates family run specialists like 

ours from the so-called global full-liners that think, 

because they offer three mowers and two forage 

wagons, that their forage machinery crop line is complete. 

One example on this theme: Our product range 

includes just under 50 different mower models, as 

well as 30 different forage wagons and 25 round baler 

models. This is a lot and requires highest flexibility 

in our assembly. However, it allows us to meet your 

own very special requirements, just as those of your 

professional colleagues in France, America or anywhere 

else in the world. That, dear reader, is our understanding 

of full-line production. In other words, being 

in the position to offer you custom-made engineering 

solutions to tackle your individual challenges. Hereby, 

the 2-metre mower has the same standing for us as the 

1000 HP forage harvester. Why do we take this complicated 

approach? Very simple. We are convinced that 

the right product, linked with committed service for 

you as farmer or agricultural contractor, is what determines 

our success – and nothing else! 

Despite the adverse economic conditions, let me offer 

my best wishes to you for the second half of this year. 

Please stay in good health and continue down your individual 

road in the successful management of your 

business. We are happy to support you in this aim with 

our machinery. 

With best wishes from Emsland, 

Your Bernard Krone 

3

CONTENTS 

CONTENTS 

Austria: Fritz Egger 

produces quality beef 

and markets direct. 

France: With premium cheese, 

farmers in the Franche-Comté 

region achieve good milk prices. 

1,900 cows, 40,000 t forage feed 

and 20 m l milk – that’s the Milchhof 

Rodenwalde. 

POSTER 

Interview with Philip Freiherr 

von dem Bussche. 

EDITORIAL 

France: Krone launches 

its own sales company 

from July, 2016. 

On the road with the spare parts 

night courier. 

Innovations 

PAGES 6 – 9 PAGES 14 – 17 PAGE 25 

PAGE 3 PAGES 10 – 13 PAGES 18 – 21 PAGES 22 – 24 

PAGES 26 – 27 

PAGES 28 – 31 

4

In winter, it’s high season in 

the Maschinenfabrik Krone 

assembly. 

German Federal President 

Gauck visits Krone in Spelle. 

Austria: Cooperation from dealership 

and specialist workshops. 

NEWS-TICKER 

Italy: Lifestyle and special hay with 

the family Dentis in Piedmont. 

Farm contractor Mensching is 

straw harvesting specialist in 

Schaumburger Land. 

IMPRINT 

“Optimat” developer 

Franz Hohberger 

Krone silage harvesters 

enable chop lengths between 

2.5 and 42 mm. 

celebrates his 100th 

birthday. 

PAGES 34 – 35 

PAGES 32 – 33 

PAGE 45 

PAGES 40 – 41 

PAGES 36 – 39 PAGES 42 – 44 PAGES 46 – 49 

PAGES 50 – 51 

5

MENSCHEN TITLE THEME 

Milk production in France 

CHEESE 

GALORE 

6

Farmers almost everywhere 

have difficulties 

because of low milk prices. 

French farmers know this 

type of problem too – but 

not the milk producers 

of Franche-Comté in the 

northeast of the country. 

There, a very special 

cheese is produced, and 

the unique regulations 

applying to this premium 

product influence the 

entire region. 

The building in the center of the village Flagey 

is hardly noticeable. Only a small sign indicates 

that, there, the cheese Comté is produced and sold by 

Yves Cuinet. In the dairy, he processes milk delivered 

by a total nine dairy farmers from the surrounding 

villages, including that from his own cows. Parked 

behind the building is a small milk tanker that collects 

the milk from the farmers each evening. Differently from 

other parts of France, here a small cheese processing 

plant still exists in just about every village. These produce 

AOP Comté. AOP stands for appellation d’origine 

protégée (protected designation of origin): a seal of 

quality awarded by the European Union and guaranteed 

by strict production regulations. 

Inside the cheese plant stand two large gleaming red 

copper kettles. The capacity of one kettle is enough to 

produce six cheese rounds. The milk from the previous 

day has been already processed in the morning. The 

result is piled at one side of the small room: 20 forms 

filled with still-fresh cheese. Surplus whey still drips out 

of the forms. It’s warm in the room. Not until the evening 

will one of Yves Cuinet’s cheesemaking colleagues loosen 

the cheeses from their forms, rub the rounds with brine 

and take them down to the small vaulted cellar. A tiny 

stairway leads from the production room down behind 

into the cool of the cellar where a spicy aroma envelopes 

those descending, the smell of cheese after cheese, all 

ripening on shelves soaring right up to the ceiling. Yves 

Cuinet explains: “The Comté is a fruity, hard cheese 

with taste ranging from mild to piquant, depending on 

production time and length of maturation. Our cheese 

belongs to the best types of cheese in France.” A cheese 

round weighs 40 kg and must be rubbed on both sides 

with sea salt daily. In Flagey, a master cheesemaker and a 

deputy cheesemaker take care of cheese production. The 

eventual quality of the cheese depends on their skill and 

sensitivity – and on the milk. When the cheese plant’s 

small storage cellar is full, rounds are brought into the 

vaults of an old castle. There, they mature for between 

4.5 and 40 months. In the small village shop, a kilogram of 

this cheese can be bought for around euro 10. But in other 

regions of France, and on foreign markets, retail prices 

can quickly reach euro 30. 

7


HAY INSTEAD OF SILAGE 

The local farmers profit directly from this high added 

value that can bring them, according to product quality, 

up to 0.50 euro/l for their milk, a price that farmers 

in other parts of Europe can only dream about currently. 

However, this reward demands its tribute in terms of 

input. Jeremy Guyat is one of five farmers that together 

manage a herd of around 450 cows. In France this kind 

of agricultural organization is called a “gaec”. In summer, 

the cows graze the fields around the farms in the village 

of Deservillers. In total, Jeremy Guyat and his colleagues 

farm 395 ha of which 290 ha is pasture and 105 ha arable. 

When the animals can’t get out to pasture because 

of the weather, the AOP regulations mean they can only 

be offered hay as forage. Silage is not allowed as feed and 

the concentrate ration is also strictly limited. Under such 

conditions, an especially high quality of forage is crucial. 

Two cuts of grass are possible on the shallow stony soils 

around the Jura massif. Grass dominates the rotation in 

this hilly landscape, with grain grown on only very few 

areas where the main cereals are wheat giving an average 

8t/ha and barley (4t/ha). The straw is used as litter 

directly in the region. 

1 

SPECIAL BREEDS 

Jeremy Guyat and his colleagues cut their grass with 

a Krone EasyCut mower. The grass is then turned once 

and windrowed twice. He bales around 190 ha with his 

own Comprima roundbaler and the hay on the remainder 

of the grassland is collected with a forage wagon. Such 

forage can still have a very high moisture content so, for 

improving the hay quality and thus the chance of saving 

on concentrate requirements, the gaec decided to invest 

in the building of a drying barn in 2013. In the enclosed 

upper floor directly under the 3000 m 2 roof, the sunshine 

heats the air. Fans then transport the heated air under 

the lower floor where it is blown through slits in the 

around 1000 m 2 flooring up into the hay. “The ratio of 3:1, 

i.e. three parts roof area to one part drying floor, is ideal 

for drying the hay”, states Jeremy Guyat. “It takes only 

around a week to dry lucerne from a moisture content of 

50 % down to 10 % in this way.” 

He finds that the drying barn has definitely improved 

the quality of the harvested hay. The energy content in 

the forage has increased so much that he’s been able to 

save around 3.8 kg concentrate feed per cow. The ration 

is always a mix of first and second cut hay plus around 4 

kg concentrate feed. The breeds milked are Montbéliard 

and Simmental. Farmers wanting to be considered as 

deliverers of milk for Comté cheese are restricted to just 

two breeds in their respective herds. In the past, this 

gaec has won numerous awards for the breeding of its 

Montbéliard cows. The breed is based on a cross of Comtois 

and Simmental Fleckvieh. Its milk is rich in protein 

8

2 3 

and relatively low in fat. This gaec retains a proportion 

of heifer calves as herd replacements. Others are reared 

and sold in-calf because Montbéliard is the most important 

French export breed. Weight limit for slaughter animals 

is 410 kg with the meat marketed, just like the milk, 

in small shops throughout the region. 

GOOD COMMUNITY 

The animals lie in deep straw in a large open barn. This 

litter is partly produced by gaec members, although 

some is also bought-in. Jeremy Guyat milks his herd 

twice daily, catching up with the rest of the farm 

work in-between. The gaec owns the required forage 

harvesting machinery, although for all other work, such 

as bringing out the dung, or seed drilling, members use 

equipment from the CUMA organization. CUMA is an 

acronym from the French term for agricultural materials 

handling cooperative, equivalent to machinery rings 

in other parts of Europe. President of the local CUMA is 

Gilles Marechal. Another six people are employed, including 

an office worker and three machinery driver/ 

operators. Certain machinery, such as the large square 

baler, may only be operated by a CUMA driver. The society 

CUMA de la Montagne includes 62 farmers from 

the region and president Gilles Marechal is proud how 

smoothly the organization nowadays works. Every 

Monday, farmers meet in the large CUMA conference 

room and plan machinery application for the coming 

week. In the fleet are several tractors from Fendt and 

1 Jeremy Guyat puts great value on good forage quality. 

Towards this, he built a hay drying barn in 2013. 

2 Gilles Marechal (l) is president and Daniel Ronot (r) 

deputy of the local machinery sharing society. For 

the purchase of new machinery they work closely 

with dealer Lucien Bruner (middle). 

3 Yves Cuinet: a farmer producing French Comté 

cheese in a small plant in Flagey. 

John Deere as well as Krone square and round balers. Says 

Gilles Marechal: “The large square baler is especially in 

demand because the integrated weighing unit enables immediate 

recording of the hay harvest.” Within CUMA, Gilles 

Guyat is responsible for purchasing balers and declares: 

”More important than the purchase price for our decisions is 

the subsequent forage quality.” 

If a farmer wants to use a square baler, the request is 

made at the Monday meeting. Functioning of this system 

requires discipline and respect from all members, especially 

during the busy harvest time. “However, over the years a 

well-functioning organization has developed amongst our 

members. The machinery links all of us in our daily tasks.” 

9

TITLE THEME 

Krone France 

IN OUR OWN HAN 

From July 2016, Krone launched 

its own sales company in 

France under the management 

of Joël Foucher. XtraBlatt 

editorial spoke with him over 

the present position, future 

plans and the situation of 

farming in France. 

10

DS 

France is recognized as the largest agricultural 

machinery market in Europe. Contrary to the 

German sales peak in the years 2011 to 2015, the French 

experienced sometimes-violent ups and downs – no 

easy environment for the launch of Krone France SAS. 

XtraBlatt: Monsieur Foucher, how is the French farm 

equipment market developing currently? Is there a 

recognizable trend towards improvement? 

Joël Foucher: I would describe the situation more as an 

emotional roller-coaster. 2009 to 2011 were characterized 

by strong falls in sales in nearly all segments of agricultural 

machinery. In 2012/13 there followed an upswing so 

vigorous that it was almost a hype. Subsequently came 

a downturn again. And currently we’re seeing no ground 

for particular optimism. After all, the French farmer also 

suffers extremely under the fall in prices, particularly for 

milk, but also for meat. The removal of the milk quota had 

serious consequences. 

XtraBlatt: Could you explain this further? 

Foucher: In the first place, there’s naturally the immediate 

consequence of many farmers sliding into financial difficulties 

and thus accelerating the structural change. For 

instance, at the beginning of 2016 we had a good 90,000 

dairy farmers in France with the particularly important 

dairy regions definitely Brittany and Normandy. In the 

meantime, we have official sources in administration 

and politics openly admitting that they reckon with a reduction 

in dairy farms of up to 20 % by the end of 2020. This 

is a drama for France and literally a real political concern. 

XtraBlatt: Why haven’t we seen more strikes and blockades? 

After all, the French farmers were always known 

for their aggressive reactions … 

Foucher: That’s correct and, beneath the surface, things 

are certainly boiling-up in agriculture. However, the food 

11


price crisis is an international problem, not a purely French 

one. The dismantling of quotas, globalization, influences of 

highly fluctuating export markets, the Russia embargo, the 

visible correlation between prices for raw materials and agricultural 

products, a certain speculative influence through 

big investors for land and foodstuffs – especially now, a 

lot of unsuitable influences come together. And naturally, 

don’t let’s forget the peculiarity, especially in France, that 

the traditional great importance put in food and farming 

within the population is substantially crumbling. 

XtraBlatt: : Thereby the French, with over 15 %, still give 

nearly double as much out for food compared with, for 

example, the Germans … 

Foucher: Yes, this is a fact. And many farmers have 

specialized in niches such as cheese production, as well as 

direct marketing. In such cases, they achieve substantially 

better profitability for their milk, as shown by the example 

in this XtraBlatt issue. However, this is not a solution 

for everyone in agriculture. In France too, the discounters 

are on the advance. This change in values is already serious 

and an additional emotional element in the discussion. 

Differently from Germany, I reckon here in France 

we have fewer farmers with jobs or incomes from outside 

agriculture. Therefore, here the price crisis represents a 

greater threat to livelihood for farmers. 

XtraBlatt: In other words, no good perspectives for farm 

machinery sales? 

Foucher: No, I wouldn’t formulate the situation as baldly 

as that. Certainly, the structural change is massive. However, 

the farmland is still with us, and it continues to be 

farmed. This is why Germany and France are, and will 

remain, the strongest farm agricultural machinery 

The headquarters of 

Krone France SAS in St. Arnoult-en-Yvelines. 

markets in Europe. However, in France too, the customers 

change and so do their farms and thus their requirements 

for machinery and advice. Over and above this, agricultural 

contractor businesses, of which there already are 

some 2,500, increase still further in importance in forage 

harvesting. It is crucial that these businesses are serviced 

by agricultural machinery dealerships, as well as by the 

sales organizations of the manufacturers! For this reason, 

the trend towards bigger, higher performance and more 

complex machinery also offers opportunities in the market. 

Especially during periods when business is weak, as 

now, it’s important to plan correctly for future progress. 

XtraBlatt: Is this why Krone has decided to end its 

cooperation with Amazone France and to establish its 

own sales company in France? 

Foucher: The work done together with Amazone France 

functioned very well over decades, and very successfully 

too! However, because in general customer requirements, 

and technical complexity, have increased so much and 

continue to increase, it’s no longer possible to position 

and support the products of both brands with the necessary 

intensity through a single organization. With Krone 

France SAS, launched officially on July 1 2016, we are now 

going absolutely our own way. 

XtraBlatt: What does this mean in concrete terms? 

Foucher: Firstly, it means the development of our own 

subsidiary company complete with sales and service team. 

12

A proportion of French farms remain small in area. A reduction of up to 20 % in dairy 

farm numbers is expected by 2020. 

The new location is in St. Arnoult-en-Yvelines, around 

50 km southwest of Paris. The buildings that we’ve taken 

over are partly rebuilt, so that we have the best possibilities 

for sales and service. Alone for the spare parts store 

and logistics there’s 3000 m 2 available, and a further 

2000 m 2 for service and training activities. And of course 

let’s not forget the machinery show areas and administration. 

Our team has been able to achieve 

much in the last months. Altogether, we’re 

training 35 colleagues currently, as the 

basis for our work. The target envisaged 

for the end of November 2016 is a total 45 

people and I think that we will achieve this. 

XtraBlatt: Keyword service: What plans 

exist for spare parts supply? This is certainly a central 

success factor, especially during the forage harvesting 

season … 

» For Krone, France 

is one of the three 

most important 

markets. « 

Joël Foucher 

Foucher: No, definitely not! With Amazone and Krone 

working together in the past we managed to achieve a 

very good job. This means we have a good dealership 

network as well as good market share for our machinery. 

Naturally, there will be changes in the sales and service 

partnership structure in some regions. Hereby, the primary 

aim is to close holes in our coverage, above all building 

on the type and intensity of cooperation 

with the trade. Completing this 

development won’t be a short-term 

job, more a long-term process. Parallel 

to this, our own field staff is set to 

expand, to begin with, from the current 

eight colleagues to an expected 

twelve, later fourteen. 

XtraBlatt: And what is your turnover and units sales target 

for 2020? 

Foucher: Correct. The logistics for spare parts for 2016 

remain with the Amazone sales company until November. 

This is to avoid the complications of a change in midseason. 

From then on, we in St. Arnoult-en-Yvelines will 

take over the baton and supply our dealerships directly. 

From the already mentioned buildings area no less than 

two-thirds is reserved for spare parts, beginning with 

a stock of around 15,000 part positions. This is almost 

double the number available in past years. 

XtraBlatt: Are you also starting from zero in the dealership 

network? 

Foucher (smiling): It would be presumptuous to give 

concrete figures at a time such as now when we can foresee 

the years ahead for neither the milk and meat prices 

nor the development of the agricultural machinery 

market. However, with the right intensity of marketing 

and a halfways favorable framework situation, I think a 

doubling of turnover within five years is certainly possible. 

For Krone, France is already, together with the USA and 

Germany, one of its three most important markets. But 

we’ve still got a long way to go … 

13

MENSCHEN ON-FARM 

Milchhof Rodenwalde 

OPTIMAIZED 

Each year on Rodenwalde 

dairy farm 40,000 t of forage 

feed is converted to 

almost 20 million l milk. 

Maize represents a large 

part of the ration and farm 

manager Hans-Peter Greve 

has had to find a structural 

solution towards increasing 

silage digestibility. 

14

Hans-Peter Greve and Kathrin Greve with their three sons. 

M 

Milchhof Rodenwalde KG lies at 

the end of an old avenue lined 

by linden and chestnut trees on the outskirts 

of Rodenwalde, a picturesque village 

around an hour east of Hamburg. 

Hans-Peter Greve is managing director 

of the farm. Born in Schleswig-Holstein, 

he came to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 

1991 and ten years ago took over management 

of Rodenwalde dairy farm. Nowadays, 

he’s sole managing director of the 

dairy with its almost 2,000 ha land and 

1,900 milking cows and followers. His 

wife Kathrin manages as a further enterprise 

on the farm, a facility with horse 

breeding, pension and riding school. 

TEN YEARS OF LONG CHOP 

The region around Rodenwalde in the and that the feed ration for our cows is 

west of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district very maize-dominated.” As Hans-Peter 

is predestinated for livestock, as this Greve reports, there have even been years 

dedicated dairy farmer says: “The soil is when no grass at all has been fed. “Grass 

not all that heavy, but tends to be too is an expensive feed under these conditions 

and maize is substantially cheaper. 

light, with its 38 points, for purely arable 

farming. We are therefore in a classic On the other hand, feeding maize on its 

forage production location, even though own gives a forage with too little crude 

it hasn’t specialized in dairying so far.” fiber and structure for the demanding 

There is, however, one disadvantage ruminant stomachs of our high productthat 

also leads to a limited proportion ion animals.” For this reason, the maize 

of permanent pasture: “In parts, there is is chopped longer, and has been for the 

not enough precipitation, with just 600 last ten years. “We’ve reduced the expensive 

grass silage to a minimum in the 

to 700 mm annually. Above all, the early 

summer drought is pronounced. This feed ration while achieving the required 

means that in most years yield is limited structure through a longer chop length of 

20 mm for our maize.“ 

15


TECHNICAL 

ADJUSTMENTS 

With these reasons in mind, the idea of 

long chop maize was developed a decade 

ago together with the then feed adviser: 

“It made sense to chop longer and thus 

try to generate more structure out of the 

available maize when there was limited 

grass in the ration. We started at that 

time with a chop length of 16 mm and 

meantime have reached around 20 mm. 

We’ve tried out quite a lot and invested 

much time looking into different solutions. 

At first the machinery, especially 

the cracker, had to be adjusted because in 

order to chop long, the cracker has to be 

set very precisely.” 

Farm contractor Hamester from Mühlen- 

Eichsen does the entire maize harvest using 

only a disc cracker. “We achieve very 

good results in chop quality and kernel 

shredding. We’ve been working right 

from the start with Hamester and so 

were able to get our way concerning the 

longer chop. However, I can understand 

that the contractor was initially cautious 

when following special customer wishes 

and making the necessary changes to 

the machinery. Ideas suggested by farmers 

don’t always work out. In the case of 

long chop, however, we can report a positive 

balance after ten years”, concludes 

Hans-Peter Greve. 

REHEATING NO PROBLEM 

Bright and light-flooded: the new buildings at Milchhof Rodenwalde KG. 

Often identified as a problem with long forage maize harvest at Rodenwalde is 

chop maize silage is a tendency to reheat usually done with a single harvester and 

in the silo bunker. This hasn’t been the only occassionally another one brought 

case with Hans-Peter Greve. “We’ve got in. Contractor Hamester runs a BiG X 700 

no problem with this because our feed removal 

rate is so big, with 50 t daily. We’ve the same time, it would be hectic at the 

and BiG X 850. If both were working at 

carried out compaction probes with clamp where, with a daily 80 ha harvested, 

more compacting vehicles would be 

Schaumann and these have indicated that 

the compaction with the long chop silage needed, says Hans-Peter Greve. “If we 

was not optimum in the upper layer because 

it hadn’t been rolled enough. For chop, two roller tractors or one large trac- 

follow our usual routine, even with long 

this reason, we seal the upper layer of the tor and a telescopic loader are sufficient 

silo bunker with a layer of shorter chop for compacting. However, for smaller 

silage. It’s just a case of doing our homework 

and rolling a bit more intensively on required feed removal rate. There, the silo 

farms it is more difficult to maintain the 

top. With this in mind, longer chop is no bunkers should be narrower to achieve a 

problem, although it certainly has to be more complete removal at the face.” The 

planned for in the silo filling routine.” The forage is cut out of the 20 m broad bun- 

16

Everything in sight: The manager Hans-Peter Greve has all controls to hand. 

A part of the process is thorough control of feed quality. 

ker in the morning with the cutter grab: 

around 50 t maize and 20 t grass silage is 

prepared in the mixer-feeder trailer with 

the concentrate share and, depending on 

the ration, from 600 to 800 g straw per 

cow: “The straw content allows acceleration 

or slowing down of retention period. 

In total, our ration has 42 % dry matter. 

The feeding takes place with 13 tours, the 

first starting at 5.30 am with all 2,800 

cattle fed by 9.30 am. “ 

LOOKING AHEAD 

The facilities at Rodenwalde were completely 

renewed in 2008. With an investment 

of around 6 million euros, the latest 

developments in this scale of dairy cattle 

housing were incorporated to improve 

animal comfort and labor productivity, 

says Hans-Peter Greve. “For us, the new 

buildings mean that labor productivity 

has been doubled compared with the old 

buildings.” Only a proportion of followers 

remain in the older buildings. Despite the 

current milk price, this will be changed 

before this year is out. “Currently we are 

building a new barn for 800 young cattle 

with completion planned this autumn.” 

INFO 

Incidentally, you can 

access a video on this 

report via the QR code 

or the link: krone.de/ 

xtrablatt-videos. 

In the end, out of good feed comes great milk. The parlor was 

– like the housing – new-built in 2008. 

17

MENSCHEN INTERVIEW 

The Krone Holding Advisory Board 

NAVIGATING THE FU 

For more than a year now, 

Philip Freiherr von dem Bussche 

has been chairman of the 

Krone advisory board. We’ve 

speak with him here over the 

tasks of this committee and 

about the challenges of successfully 

navigating an ownermanaged 

family firm into the 

next century. 

» Krone’s genetic code 

lies very near to the customers’ 

DNA. « 

Philip von dem Bussche 

18

TURE 

Farmer, entrepreneur, DLG president, director of 

KWS Saat AG – from his professional career Philip 

Freiherr von dem Bussche brings not only an enormous 

treasure-trove of experience to tasks as chairman of the 

Krone advisory board, but also a worldwide network of 

contacts. 

XtraBlatt: Herr von dem Bussche, with numerous duties 

in responsible positions you have had to set important 

goals in your professional career and have achieved a 

great deal. In this respect, does the role of chairman of 

an advisory board not tend to be rather boring? 

Philip Freiherr von dem Bussche: Absolutely not! On the 

contrary, thanks to the experience that I have been able 

to collect during my professional activities, I can now continue 

to help creatively and apply the knowledge I have, 

while remaining detached from the operative business. 

This is a very exciting challenge in as much as I can carry it 

out together with professional colleagues in the advisory 

board and with Krone’s highly competent management 

force. Perhaps “advisory board” sounds for outsiders rather 

less than exciting in the first instance. But if a business, 

and its advisory board, take a cooperation seriously and 

do not simply meet just for a cup of coffee, then such a 

committee assumes a great deal of importance! Optimally, 

an advisory board comprises a group of people with 

very different competences and experience that exists to 

support the owner of a firm and the active management 

from a certain critical distance through constructive collaboration. 

Hereby, the focus is less on questions of daily 

operative business but more on the general direction of 

the enterprise for the future. In this sense, the circle of advisors 

has an important corrective role as well as a visionary 

one and acts as a sparring partner in the discussion on 

company values. 

XtraBlatt: That sounds philosophical ... 

At the beginning of 2015, Dr. E.h. Bernard Krone (r.) 

handed over the chair to Philip von dem Bussche. 

von dem Bussche: … but that it’s definitely not. Or only in 

part. True, it applies to practical target setting, sometimes 

certainly even short-term. But above all for the medium 

and long-term. 70 to 80 % of the work of such committees 

is strategic, i.e. of a long-term nature. Krone is a company 

with over 100 years of development and imbued 

with definite and very clear values of the owning family. 

Nevertheless, the members of every new generation have 

to put themselves and their fundamental beliefs on the 

test stand, quasi redefine themselves, come to terms with 

the developments in the market and in society, in order 

to continue to remain successful. This is exactly what the 

family Krone had in mind, and has achieved, through the 

establishment of its advisory board. In particular with the 

Krone example can one recognize the great economical 

relevance of a value-based company management. 

XtraBlatt: What is involved in the work of the committee? 

von dem Bussche: As chairman, I am in the company 

premises once a month. There is a “jour fix”, a definite 

day, on which I discuss with the company management 

the outstanding questions, be they legal changes or, for 

example, the merging with the Brüggen Group in the 

commercial vehicle sector 2015. Here, we also prepare 

the themes that the board discuss in their three-monthly 

meetings. At such times the focus, as already said, is on 

strategic questions, but also questions on economic viability, 

personnel themes or upcoming investments. From 

this approach arises a lively argumentative culture, that is 

not only desired by the owner family but also practiced by 

them. Under these conditions, the view from outside can 

have a very effective influence within the company. 

19

MENSCHEN INTERVIEW 

The Krone Holding advisory board members (l. to r.) Bernard ten 

Doeschate, Dr. Wilhelm-Friedrich Holtgrave, Philip Freiherr von 

dem Bussche (chairman) and Bernd Meerpohl. Honorary chairman 

(not pictured) is Dr. E.h. Bernard Krone. 

XtraBlatt: Is the advisory board quasi a navigation team 

for the future of the company? 

von dem Bussche: That is a very good description – at 

least in as much as the captain does not have to steer his 

ship alone through unknown waters. The advisory board 

naturally doesn’t know every reef. But, thanks to collective 

experience, can contribute a lot towards finding the 

right course. 

XtraBlatt: In this respect, could you give an example of 

a theme? 

von dem Bussche: Here we can take the example of the 

question where a company such as Krone will be in ten 

years. What will be the effects of the strengths of a specialist, 

the innovative power, customer-nearness, in relation 

to external challenges, challenges that naturally do 

not bypass the enterprise? Let me name just three key 

words. First: digitalization, in other words the fight for 

data and against potential access barriers. Can electronic 

solutions from tractor and implement manufacturers be 

compatible in the future? Or do we steer towards a monopoly 

situation? The second keyword goes in the same 

direction: What will coming developments in the dealership 

infrastructure look like? Will medium sized concerns 

such as Krone retain access to professional specialist 

dealers, or will the full-liners marginalize the specialists? 

Thirdly, what are the consequences of the kind of very 

rapid growth experienced by Krone in the last 15 years for 

the inner structure of the organization? For such themes, 

we on the advisory board are not always all insiders. 

However, the themes are prepared and processed by the 

firm’s management, which, once again, represents an 

opportunity for those people to both fundamentally and 

strategically involve themselves in the subjects. The prepared 

presentation would then be intensively discussed by 

all of us together. Even when we, now and again, have to 

ask a silly question, therein lies the opportunity of giving 

a wise answer and of developing solutions. 

1 

XtraBlatt: What are the tasks arising from this? 

von dem Bussche: Let us stay with the example of organization 

structure. An outstanding strength with Krone is 

the culture of the family enterprise with a strong “us” feeling 

within the entire staff – which, after all, means some 

6,000 people. However, the distributing of responsibilities, 

a strategic personnel management, integrated process 

organization and IT system, the internal communication, 

and a lot more, cannot be controlled in the same way as in 

a company with just 500 or 1000 staff. Such maneuvering 

has, on the whole, worked well with Krone in the passage 

of the years. However, for the era 4.0 the company faces 

completely new challenges that cannot be decided alone 

through the gut feeling of the old-school manager. 

Here’s where the advisory board comes into play. Its tightly 

meshed relationship network can offer support in finding 

ways towards a correct solution, identifying the right 

experts and recruiting them into the company. The art of 

successful organization development lies in rebalancing 

as much structure as needed and as much flexibility as 

possible, and this with a flatter hierarchy. Or formulating 

it more simply, to react as professionally as a global player 

without losing the spirit of the family enterprise and the 

extremely important nearness to the customer. 

XtraBlatt: Do you see Krone as well enough balanced for 

this? 

von dem Bussche: Yes, definitely so. When you look at the 

history of the company, there have repeatedly been fundamental 

and in-part hard changes of direction to be made. 

An example is the turning away from building of agricultural 

trailers, or soil cultivation implements, and the focus- 

20

2 3 

ing on forage harvesting. Or starting in the truck trailer 

business. The decisive point is that decisions are made in 

time. It is not enough to look through the current portfolio, 

but instead to recognize at the right time where one 

as specialist can retain a leading position with the right 

innovations. This is because the farmer and the agricultural 

contractor do not allow themselves to be pressured into 

single-color sales and machinery concepts from long-liners. 

What they want is the correct solution for their farm 

or business because it is the most economically viable. And 

they also want freedom of choice as to which machines, 

and what implements, they can combine. The want to remain 

masters of their own data. But they also want highly 

professional support from dealers and manufacturers. This 

freedom of choice for entrepreneurs must be encouraged 

by medium-sized companies such as Krone. The genetic 

code with Krone is very near their customers’ DNA. 

Similar tendencies as seen agricultural machinery I know 

from my earlier experience in plant breeding. If varieties 

and genetics, seed treatment and complete data transparency 

of customers lie in the hands of just a few large concerns, 

there remains for farmers no freedom of choice in 

the end. This is why specialists are so important amongst 

the breeders too. But whether agricultural machinery or 

plant breeding, it doesn’t matter: those who don’t develop 

their own strategy in time don’t succeed in the end. 

This is why I see in the subject “access to customers” one of 

the central future themes. 

XtraBlatt: Structural change in farming is currently more 

marked than it has been for 20 years. What does this 

mean for manufacturers such as Krone if the market for 

smaller and medium-sized machinery slumps substantially? 

von dem Bussche: Unmistakable is a strong polarization. 

On the one hand, we have farmers with a combination 

of incomes, meantime representing 60 % of businesses in 

Germany, that therefore do not have a vehement need to 

expand. On the other, professional farms with agriculture 

as main income source and strong growth in size, as well 

as contractors and machinery rings. Nowadays there’s no 

argument that the middle-ground featuring the traditional 

farm with agriculture as primary earner becomes 

narrower; particularly if the trend towards increased inter-farm 

cooperation increases. Without question, this 

has an effect on unit sales potential. However, because 

of the increasingly complex engineering involved, margin 

per unit has recognizably risen in the past years. 

Export sales will also have continued growing importance, 

not only in professional machinery, but also in the smaller 

to medium-sized machinery market with appropriate 

size-related sale numbers. This is because, worldwide, 

there remain many markets still developing from manual 

work to mechanical operations with simple machinery. 

However, one must also consider producing locally in 

emerging countries. Once again a cerebral challenge in 

which Krone advisory board members will be involved … 

On the whole, I am completely convinced that west and 

central Europe will remain very good regions for machinery 

sales, because here, we have a worldwide favorable 

agricultural area. On this, specialists such as Krone can, 

and indeed must, prepare themselves through retaining 

their respective positions as leaders of innovation and 

cost control and additionally keeping their close contact 

to customers. 

XtraBlatt: Herr von dem Bussche thank you very much 

for the discussion! 

21

MENSCHEN INSIGHT 

Krone spare parts logistics 

OVERNIGHT EXP 

Spare parts ordered 

late afternoon and 

delivered direct 

to customers next 

morning. XtraBlatt 

accompanies an 

overnight express 

delivery for you. 

Every farmer and agricultural contractor 

knows the problem: Despite 

careful maintenance and pre-season 

preparation, machinery downtime during 

harvest operations cannot be completely 

avoided. If parts are defective, 

replacements must be found as rapidly as 

possible. Sometimes, every hour counts. 

Krone is exceptionally well prepared for 

such emergencies. In Germany alone, 

more than 250 sales and service partners 

ensure through inventory stocks that replacement 

and wear parts are very rapidly 

available. 

Additionally, dealerships are backed-up 

by seven Krone regional stores, as well 

as three factory service centres. And 

when all else fails, urgently required replacement 

parts can be rushed by courier 

through the night from the main store in 

Spelle, Germany. But what logistics are 

necessary to ensure customers receive 

their order within just a few hours? Kristen 

Dierkes (Krone Marketing) and Elisa 

Gödde (Krone T-Vision) accompanied an 

overnight delivery of over 500 km from 

Emsland to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 

northeastern Germany. 

22

RESS DELIVERY 

4.28 pm: An order for a coupler required 

for the BiG Pack 1290 HDP HS is sent by 

dealership MAREP to the main Krone parts 

storage. More precisely: the order comes 

from the dealership branch in Teterow to 

the appropriate regional store in Dambeck. 

The required part is there in store. In 

the unlikely case of this not being so, the 

delivery would come – from time of ordering 

to handing over of repaired machine 

to the end customer – overnight, punctually 

delivered from the firm central parts 

store. In very urgent cases, special express 

deliveries are possible so that the machinery 

in question can be working again in 

just a few hours – as rapidly as possible. In 

short: there’s not a minute lost. 

To highlight the efficiency of the system, 

we set out to accompany the delivery 

from Spelle. In this case, time pressure did 

not really require a day express delivery. 

In fact, the overnight express service was 

sufficient – the customer wanted to be 

back baling the next morning. 

4.32 pm: Main store employee Daniel 

Deventer activates the order per mouse 

click at his computer. Krone works with a 

computer-based dynamic storage system. 

Immediately after activation, the order 

appears on the scanner of the store employee. 

In very rapid succession, the part 

is “picked”, i.e. taken out of its place in the 

shelving, documented per scan and sent 

to the packing station where it’s made 

ready for transport. In total, around 5,000 

parts are sent off daily in this way. That’s 

more than 8,000 t material! 

6.33 pm: The NSE transporter arrives at 

door 2 of the Krone spare part centre in 

Spelle. Driver Manuel Osuna loads all the 

deliveries and takes our package for the 

further journey to Osnabruck. This is the 

start of the journey and we also climb into 

the transporter. 

7.14 pm: We arrive in Osnabruck at the 

branch office of Hellmann Worldwide 

Logistics, one of seven NSE associates. 

Here all shipments get sorted according to 

country, or for delivery to addresses inside 

Germany. Everything gives the impression 

of good organization, although one notices: 

There’s not a minute wasted – speed 

4.44 pm: The coupler is ready for the 

off. Now the service Night Star Express 

(NSE) can collect the article. On this day, 

a total of 590 deliveries, around 1,400 

packed parts altogether, are sent via NSE 

from the main store in Spelle. The value of 

this service is that an order placed in late 

afternoon can be guaranteed delivered 

anywhere in Germany the next morning 

– with the emphasis on “guaranteed”. 

There are very few services able to do this 

because in order to succeed, a cleverly designed 

logistics system is required, as we 

would soon find out. 

Daniel Deventer (Krone parts transaction monitor) 

activates the order for picking and packing. 

Now the race begins – rapidly the ordered spare part 

is “picked”, booked per scan and given a label. 

23


6.32 am: Gunther Jahnke rummages in a 

box for the appropriate key, opening the 

gates to the dealership yard with it. The 

package is laid in the delivery box and the 

delivery documented through scanning 

a barcode in the box, but also by photograph. 

We take our leave of the driver. A 

long journey lies behind us. While we wait 

for the dealership to open its doors, the 

distribution tour goes further for Jahnke. 

He still has seven deliveries on his list. 

As fast as the wind, the part is packed and readied for transport. Everything is punctually 

completed. Now NSE can collect the carton. 

At NSE in Osnabruck. Here every act is rapidly carried 

out. All consignments are sorted by region for 

further delivery. 

Arrived. The package is properly placed in the delivery 

box at the Krone dealership MAREP. 

Willy Priepke, MAREP fitter, mounts the new 

coupler. 

is trump. And accuracy too. Every product 

dispatch is scanned several times during 

its journey and thus precisely recorded. 

7.58 pm: The palette with our spare part 

is filled, secured with plastic sheeting and 

loaded into another transport vehicle. We 

greet the new driver and set off on the 

next lap eastwards. Our next target is the 

town of Lehrte near Hanover. 

22.15 pm: Some two hours later, we’re 

there. At this consolidation point, complete 

loads are rapidly exchanged to help 

shorten the total journey time. 

22.30 pm: We watch as our packet is loaded 

onto the vehicle for the next stage – 

forwards to the distribution point Bochow 

near Berlin. 

1.40 am: Arrival in Bochow. The ware is 

unloaded. The responsible NSE partner 

scans the shipment. Once again, the packages 

are redistributed between different 

vehicles for subsequent delivery rounds. 

1.45 am: We meet Gunther Jahnke who’ll 

be taking us with him on his delivery 

round through Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. 

He takes charge of 

our package. A strenuous early morning 

begins. In total, we hand-over 19 separate 

deliveries before we at last reach our destination 

at Teterow. 

7.00 am: Michael Toppe, who’s responsible 

for spare parts with MAREP in Teterow, 

opens the doors for us and takes the 

package out of the delivery box. He checks 

the delivery and gives the package to the 

workshop. Mechanic Willy Priepke fits the 

required spare part into the BiG Pack 1290 

HDP HS sitting in the workshop. 

7.39 am: Completed. The coupler is fitted. 

The baler is once again ready for work and 

can be transported back to the customer. 

Our conclusion: to provide a good spare 

parts service, a very well designed logistic 

network has to be in place and an extra 

effort is needed from every player. However: 

after only one night – from lifting the 

spare part from its store shelf, transporting 

it per overnight express right across 

Germany, to delivery of the machine with 

the new part to the end customer – the 

machine is ready for work again. Alongside 

the high quality original part straight 

from a farm equipment manufacturer, especially 

important here is a perfect spare 

part availability, as well as rapid and reliable 

service. Hats off for the hard, but 

very well carried out, job made by everyone 

involved during this night! 

INFO 

Incidentally, you 

can access a video 

of this report via 

the QR code or 

accessing the link: 

krone.de/xtrablatt-videos. 

24

Campaign pro Agriculture 

KRONE INFORMS WITH BANNER 

Krone draws attention to the difficult situation 

faced by dairy farmers with a large 

banner attached to a forage wagon. The 

banner features a larger-than-life dairy 

cow delivering the clear message: “My daily 

turnover is 9.10 euros. Every day I give 35 

l milk for around 26 cents/l. For this I have 

to be fed and cared for – and still feed my 

farmer too. ... A joke!” 

“With this banner we want to point out 

the current financial position milk producers 

find themselves in”, explains Bernard 

Krone, managing director of Krone 

Holding. “Many people do not know the 

price that farmers get for a liter of milk. 

Through the transparent presentation 

on the banner, every observer can very 

quickly grasp that milk production is momentarily 

a loss-making enterprise. A fair 

price must be paid for a high quality food 

such as milk, otherwise dairy farmers cannot 

survive. That is our message – and the 

resonance from this action, which we’ve 

had, e.g. posted via the social networks, is 

definitely very positive.” 

Comprima Round Baler 

WRAPPING WITH PERIPHERAL FILM 

From now on, all Comprima series round 

balers (including the Comprima X-treme) 

can be equipped with peripheral film 

wrap. According to the manufacturer, the 

new wrapping means silage quality can be 

increased. The system encourages tighter 

layers on the bale perimeter. Hereby, expansion 

is controlled more, and this in turn 

reduces the risk of mold formation thus increasing 

forage quality. 

Peripheral wrapping scores points, too, 

under economic and ecological aspects, 

emphasizes Krone. There’s no longer required 

separation of net and film. Bales 

are thus easier to break open. Additionally, 

only one sort of waste is produced. When 

cutting, the film is not bunched together, 

so the next wrapping action starts directly 

with a full width of film. This saves both 

film and the costs of material. The change 

between film and net wrapping is rapid 

and uncomplicated, according to the 

manufacturer: a film roll is simply inserted 

instead of the usual net rolls. Krone advises 

its Krone excellent Round Wrap for the 

film roll. This completely covers the bales 

with a breadth of 1.28 m. The produced 

bale is well held together thanks to the 

adhesive characteristic of the 5-layer film. 

Krone offers retrofitting of the peripheral 

film wrap system for all Comprima models 

from 2014 onwards. 

25

26

27

MENSCHEN INTERNATIONAL 

Agriculture in Austria 

FROM THE PASTU 

Managing all aspects: Fritz Egger 

farms permanent pasture, milks and 

feeds cattle, slaughters and prepares 

the meat for subsequent direct sale 

in his hotel or through his own retail 

outlet. And all this takes place in 

picturesque Tyrolean St. Johann. 

28

RE TO THE PLATE 

In summer, the cows are driven onto the alm and also milked up there. 

As we drive into the region mid-March, there’s still 

some snow lying in the valleys. But the ski lifts 

haven’t stopped. There’s enough snow on the pistes for 

rapid downhill thrills. Fritz Egger’s farm is right in the 

midst of all this: on the north slopes of the Kitzbühler 

Horn. From here, there’s a breathtaking panorama of the 

“Wilden Kaiser” with its peaks soaring over 2,300 m. 

On the Egger farm, we’re welcomed by manager 

Christoph Niedermoser. Hospitality is king up here. He 

invites us into the staff premises and offers us a traditional 

“brotzeit” snack – just as we’d hoped … 

In the farm’s own delicatessen market, home 

produced meat is offered. One highlight is certainly 

the dry aged beef matured on the hook for around 

two months. 

“In total nowadays, we farm around 100 ha grazing 

land. Additionally there’s an awful lot of forest area”, says 

Niedermoser with a twinkle in his eye. The farm lies at 700 

m, although the “alm” – the mountain pastures belonging 

to the farm – stretches up to 1,900 m. The full-time staff 

of four look after the grass and forest as well as around 

200 head of cattle. “We milk 100 cows and feed bullocks 

for slaughter”, explains Christoph Niedermoser. Main 

breed here is the Fleckvieh, although crosses with Belgian 

Blue and Limousin prove best for meat production. Some 

of the male Fleckvieh calves from the dairy herd are sold 

straight off the cows whilst steers from the beef breeds 

are kept and fed for two to two-and-a-half years. 

29

INTERNATIONAL 

1 

whole harvest all operations are done by us, from mowing 

to turning and tedding through to uptake with two 

forage wagons. We do not need a contractor, or help 

from neighbours.” 

Most of the meat produced here is sold in Fritz Egger’s 

own hotel and restaurant in St. Johann. “Here ends, so 

to speak, our production chain. From the pastures, via 

rearing and feeding, right onto the guests’ plates, we 

have all production, slaughter and processing in our own 

hands. Some of the product is sold in a retail market that 

adjoins the hotel”, added this Austrian farm manager. 

CRUCIAL: QUALITY SILAGE 

In winter, the animals feed on grass silage and hay. In 

summer, the stock is moved up the mountain to graze 

the alm – and are milked up there too. With around 

1,400 mm annual precipitation there’s rich grass growth 

in summer, enough for four cuts in normal years. 

Mowing is with a 9 m butterfly combination and tine 

conditioner. “We have to be really flexible here if we 

want to harvest quality forage”, he adds. “And we can 

really use the power of our 200 HP tractor on the slopes.” 

For the 2016 season, a forage wagon from Krone with 

28 m 3 capacity joins the fleet, the new trailer replacing 

a much smaller one that went in part-exchange. “Transport 

distances are becoming longer. Sometimes we have 

to cover 10 km and more and we do not want to break 

the silage harvesting chain with delays. This is why we 

go for larger capacity vehicles. The target is to have feed 

rolled firmly in the clamp and covered within 24 hours. 

As a rule, we manage this, helped by the very efficient 

conditioning technology on the mower.” 

As a rule, the silage season begins with a cut mid- 

May. “We start before the grass flowers to harvest as 

much energy and protein as possible. Additionally, we 

aim at minimizing feed ash content. This is not always 

easy because the weather continually changes with lots 

of rain. We aim to get around this by keeping the time 

between mowing and ensiling as short as possible”, explains 

Christoph Niedermoser. “Our advantage is that 

we are very well-equipped with machinery. Thus, for the 

“Especially on the slopes, though, the growing size of 

machinery doesn’t always make the job easier. Even with 

tedding, care must be taken that the forage wagon can 

safely follow the swaths. Tedding into the swath is with 

a 7.30 m twin-rotor side-tedder that fits well into the 

harvesting chain. “As a rule we turn the swath once and 

then back again. Only on extreme slopes do we have to 

rake forage off the slopes so that it can be lifted on less 

steep ground”, adds Christoph Niedermoser. 

30

2 

3 

HI-TECH IN THE BARN TOO 

During winter, the animals are fed a mix of 82 % grass 

silage, 8 % hay and 10 % grain. The ration is calculate by 

the certificated farm manager himself. The respective 

components are loaded into a container with components 

according to the group of animals to be fed. It’s 

then automatically mixed before loading into a feed robot 

that drives through all livestock housing distributing 

feed mixes in 12 journeys spread over the day, ensuring 

that the cattle always have fresh feed in front of them. 

“This is optimal for the animals and also very simple for 

us because, when the plant is working, all we have to do 

is to ensure that the component containers are kept full”, 

he explains. 

4 

Exactly as smoothly as the feeding goes the fully 

automatic milking of the 100 cows through two milking 

robots – at least during the winter months. On average, 

the cows go for milking 2.7 times per day. In summer, 

however, the cows are driven onto the alm, graze there, 

and are milked twice per day through a herringbone 

parlour. The cows don’t seem to have any change-over 

problems between the milking systems, remarks the 

manager, concluding: “They adapt very well. As summer 

progresses, they generally give less milk anyway. For this 

reason, we lose relatively little in performance through 

switching to twice-daily milking. The production per cow 

lies at around 7,500 l.” 

1 The animals are fed by robot system in the barn with 

feed given 12 times per day. 

2 Christoph Niedermoser (r) and Martin Rosin put value 

on the best feed quality. 

3 In the first two weeks of life, calves are in outdoor 

boxes – no matter what the temperature. Christoph 

Niedermoser is convinced: “This has a positive effect 

on animal health.” 

4 In its own delicatessen market the farm offers homeproduced 

meat. Certainly one highlight here is dry 

aged beef that has been hung for around two months. 

31

MENSCHEN TELEGRAM 

NEWS-TICKER 

Gold in Czech Rep. 

Krone was awarded a gold medal at the 

Techagro in Brünn for the SpeedSharp-System 

(automatic knife sharpening system 

on the ZX). Around 112,000 visitors visited 

the exhibition where Krone highlights 

were the ZX 470 GL and the BiG X 580. 

Super capacity 

in Sudan 

Triple mower system, tedder and the BiG 

Pack HDP from Krone demonstrated their 

impressive work capacity, tackling up to 

nine cuts per year in sometimes-difficult 

operation conditions in Sudan. Such intensively 

farmed areas are irrigated. 

Off into the desert 

At the SIAL exhibition in Abu Dhabi (United 

Arab Emirates) Krone machinery was in 

permanent action – starring in a film made 

on location at the JENAAN Farm that for 

years has relied on machinery from Spelle. 

Full house at LVD 

Visitors in their tens of thousands flocked 

to learn more about new farm machinery 

highlights in mid-March at the traditional 

LVD Krone company exhibition. Hereby, especially 

great interest was attracted by the 

wholecrop harvester and pelleter Premos 

5000. 

32 

Product of the year 

At the World Ag Expo in Californian Tulare, 

Gary Thompson (l. Krone Northamerica) 

received the award “Product of the Year” 

for the BiG M 420. 

BiG Pack 

Down Under 

The Schuster family from Australia emphasized 

through impressive aerial photographs 

the type of big square baler it 

favours. The three BiG Packs here produce 

an annual total of around 36,000 bales – 

mainly of oat hay.

Test of strength 

At a customer event near the city of Nueva 

Esperanza in Paraguay, the Comprima 

once again proved its ability to produce 

top bales, even under difficult conditions. 

Headquarters 

Moved 

A handshake seals the deal for the new 

Krone Northamerica headquarters. Over 

the next three years building will continue 

at the new location in Shelbyville/Indiana. 

The relocation is part of a comprehensive 

strategic plan aimed at markedly expanding 

business in North America. 

Scholarships 

Presented 

31 Emsland scholarships have been 

awarded by the Wirtschaftsverband 

(Business Association) Emsland and Osnabruck 

University. The awards program 

is to support young talented students attending 

Lingen Campus. The scholarships 

sponsored by the machinery factory were 

won by: Florian Bruns, Thomas Roling and 

Lavinia Michel. 

New business 

Manager 

In April, Dr. Wolf van Lengerich was appointed 

manager of the Maschinenfabrik 

Bernard Krone GmbH & Co. KG where he 

assumed responsibility for the sales business 

division. Dr. van Lengerich is also 

managing director of the newly-grounded 

Krone Agriculture SE. 

Forage feed 

in Israel 

Made in Spelle and used worldwide. For 

example in Israel, where the Krone 

self-propelled forage harvester scores 

through its big appetite for work. Krone 

partner in Israel for many years is Nissenboim 

Brothers Ltd in Yavne’el , northern 

Israel. 

Belli-Bulli 

The company Mera-Rabeler uses the round 

baler Bellima in combination with a piste 

bulli tracklayer . This special rig has proved 

itself useful on very wet and swampy surfaces. 

33


Winter Work 

HIGH SEASON IN 

While work pauses out in the fields, 

production by Krone in Spelle runs at 

high speed. During our February tour 

through the factory, we were able to 

satisfy ourselves that Krone staff are 

really committed to getting the machinery 

ready for work and with the 

customers by season’s start. A peek 

behind the scenes: 

In the Spelle spare parts store approximat 

different items are available at any time. 

At work within Krone construction are some 200 engineers. 

All products – such as the Easycut maize header 

for forage harvesters in this picture – are continuously 

further developed. 

In the welding plant, three robots are busy welding 

mower cutterbar components. Total annual throughput: 

more than 10,000 units from 2 to 6 m wide. 

In winter, the large orders of the year are 

meaning continuous hard work in the store. 

34

Waiting to be trucked away: On the “parking space” by 

SPELLE 

the production halls, a few thousand machines stand 

ready for dispatch. Per truck they then start their respective 

journeys to the dealerships. 

ely 55,000 

One trip into the immersion paint plant: Everything assembled 

in the factory goes through the paint department 

first. It’s even whispered that every new employee 

has to take the same route … ;-) 

On the forage harvester production line at Spelle, around 

450 machines from 480 up to 1,100 HP are assembled 

each year. 

processed, 

Those that find the waiting time for their new models 

too long can take home the machinery range in pocket 

format from the Krone Fan Shop after the factory tour. 

35


Italy 

LA GRANDE FAMI 

An old monastry, a farm shop, 

a great welcome from big 

hearts: this is the Dentis family 

recipe for success. The Xtra- 

Blatt team also experienced 

its generous hospitality out in 

the fields and over a 12-course 

meal. Generous hospitality, be 

it during coffee break out on 

the fields or evenings over a 

12-course menu. 

O 

riginally, the Dentis family ran a 

farm in the centre of Turin. The 

present farm has only been owned since 

1972. The property “Cascina Grange Scott” 

owes its uniqueness to the fact that it 

was once a monastery, and to the name 

of one monk with Scottish roots. The 

farm focuses on cereal and forage production. 

Additionally, there’s a small herd 

of cattle. The typical monastery inner 

courtyard offers room for machinery and 

storage of straw and hay. 

36

GLIA 

passenger aircraft aerodrome. This includes 

around 100 ha of grass that have 

to be cut at least twice a year and, if 

there’s plenty of rain, sometimes three or 

even four times. 

For almost 20 years now the Dentis family 

have put their trust in Krone products 

for harvesting forage. To achieve more 

transport and storage efficiency, Lucia 

and Oreste Dentis stopped using a round 

baler and big square baler a few years 

ago. Instead, they bought a BiG Pack 1270 

MultiBale. The resultant high density 

bales are particularly favoured by the upland 

farmers of the Piedmont Alpine foothills 

and by horse farms. 

“The farm sort of fell into Lucia’s hands”, 

explains her father Oreste Dentis, adding: 

“It wasn’t really foreseen that she would 

one day take the reins.” When her uncle 

died and Lucia’s father lost his most important 

partner in running the farm, the 

young girl sprang into the gap. She was 

only 17 years old. In the beginning against 

the will of her father, Lucia carried on 

working on the farm and established herself 

in the agribusiness. 

Nowadays, she takes care of all bookkeeping 

and manages the farm on her 

own. Her husband Pierluigi Bertello supports 

her, along with another workhand. 

But her father Oreste still helps out at 

every required occasion. However, Lucia’s 

sons Davide and Fabio remain confident 

that “Mama makes the better bales”. 

BELOVED 

MULTIBALE 

As well as farming 170 ha of grassland, 

wheat, oilseed rape and grain maize 

there’s also an interesting earning source 

offered by the neighbouring glider and 

The great plus for the BiG Pack 1270 Multi- 

Bale is, according to the Dentis family, its 

capability of producing up to nine smaller 

bales and binding them together to leave 

a single package on the field surface. 

However, this farm applies the MultiBale 

function to produce a big bale with six 

small packages of 30 cm, so that the bales 

are not too long. Despite this, they measure 

up to 2.35 m and weigh as much as 

400 kg. “It would be more efficient if the 

bales were heavier but we would rather 

have dry hay and bales with less density. 

In this way we can produce a higher quality”, 

explains Oreste Dentis. At the special 

request of one customer, the number of 

high-density bales in the MultiBale package 

is reduced to just four. 

High quality hay is in demand from up 

to 150 km right round the farm. However, 

not every customer is willing to pay the 

good 20 % higher costs for the MultiBales 

caused, for example, by the increased 

37


1 

3 

twine used. Among the long-term steady 

customers are, for example, the stables 

of the mounted police in Milan and Turin. 

Here, the practical MultiBale bundles are 

highly valued. The streets leading to the 

small stables in the middle of the large 

cities, and even more so the storage areas, 

are difficult for vehicles to negotiate. 

Lucia’s husband, Pierluigi Bertello drives 

with trailer and telescope loader through 

the cities to deliver the hay and stack it in 

the stores. Thanks to the easily handled 

forage packages, the riders can share out 

the feed optimally and easily ration the 

horses’ feed. The police appreciate the 

advantages: “More flexibility in handling 

and less risk of dirt getting into the feed.” 

Additionally, the MultiBale principle allows 

the police to do without any further 

handling machinery and equipment, such 

as a wheeled loader. 

PIEDMONT 

SPECIALITIES 

Part of the hay and straw harvest is needed 

by Lucia and her family for their own 

animals. In their barn are housed around 

20 Piedmontese beef cattle. The family 

don’t use maize silage for feeding. To 

Lucia’s philosophy for welfare-based husbandry 

and towards producing quality 

beef belongs the rule that no more than 

five animals be housed together in a pen. 

The calves are taken from their mothers 

at three months old, as early as practicable. 

The Piedmontese breed has an interesting 

history. In the 16th century, the Black 

Death took its toll in this region. One reaction 

by the community of Turin was to 

introduce a bylaw banning the breeding 

of pigs, thus helping the establishment 

of beef - and the Piedmontese breed. The 

38

2 

1 Lucia Dentis runs a farm shop 

where she sells meat products 

from her own cattle, as well as 

bought-in wares. 

2 Oreste Dentis (l) with his wife 

Guiseppina Zanetti and daughter 

Lucia Dentis (r) with husband 

Pierluigi Bertello and their children 

Giulia, Davide and Fabio. 

3 Piedmontese food specialities are 

simply delicious! 

4 The Dentis family own Piedmontese 

beef cattle, the meat from 

which is marketed in the farm 

shop and through a cooperative. 

5 Hay in “MultiBales” is in high demand 

from the Dentis customers. 

enjoying Italian hospitality at a long table. 

Served alongside bread and grissini 

are typical regional dishes such as tatar, 

veal in tuna sauce and filled tomatoes. 

Not to forget: a good glass of wine. 

GREEN 

CLASSROOM 

Sustainability plays an important role for 

the Dentis family so it’s not surprising 

that the Cascina Grange Scott also opens 

its gates for kindergarten and school 

classes. The farm is officially recognised 

as an educational facility. Here, Lucia 

Dentis wants to bring children closer to 

a farmer’s craft and daily work, and to 

the natural cycle of food production. The 

farm as platform for active teaching: observation 

and discovery. During the seasonal 

cycle, the schoolchildren undergo 

a type of course. Among other things, 

painting takes place, covering everything 

that nature offers. 

4 

advantages of these cattle include meat 

with a high lean content, large hind quarters 

and, in the front quarters as well as 

the rear, a strongly emphasized muscularity. 

The beef colour is rosé. When the 

cattle on the Cascina Grange Scott reach 

600 to 700 kg they are shipped to the 

slaughterhouse, ending up back on the 

farm in the form of carcass halves for 

jointing and further processing. 

The beef is marketed in the farm`s own 

shop. Lucia sells an average three carcasses 

per month there. Prior to Christmas 

the demand for good meat is highest, 

she reports. Alongside home-produced 

beef and home-made maize flour products, 

Lucia sells further meat and sausage 

products, cheeses, pasta, wine and other 

foods in the shop. A cooperation with 

two other farms make this broad range of 

offerings possible. The farms are organized 

as a cooperative – short farm-to-sale 

distances and freshness of food are important 

to the Dentis family. 

In the evening, we are treated to a tasting 

of the home-produced products and culinary 

insight into traditional Piedmontese 

cooking. After work is over, we sit outside 

5 

Believed, above all, is that contact with 

the animals must be made possible for 

the children. Even although the family 

believe strongly in their Piedmontese 

beef breed, it wants to demonstrate 

the variability of nature to their young 

guests. So their Piedmontese cattle share 

their quarters with other breeds – and 

geese, hens, a horse, a pony and two 

donkeys. To round off the variety, Lucia 

thinks of introducing guestrooms on her 

farm. However, first of all, the grain and 

hay harvest is more important as well as 

the farm shop and the farmyard school. 

INFO 

Incidentally, you 

can access a video 

of this report via 

the QR code or 

accessing the link: 

krone.de/xtrablatt-videos. 

39


Chop lengths with forage maize 

SHORT, LONG, 

LONGER 

What’s the best chop length for maize? 

And above all: which technique should 

be used for chopping and conditioning? 

Whatever you want, short, long or 

longer: Krone harvesters are prepared 

to meet all wishes. 

40

Corn-conditioner and VariLOC as knife 

drum transmission are important modules 

for optimum feed conditioning in 

the forage flow. 

It’s really amazing to observe the intensity of discussions 

over the so-called chop length for maize 

throughout the branch over the last months. Hereby, 

there’s no such thing as a “correct” chop length. Whether 

the maize is to be used for a biogas production, or for 

everyday cattle feeding, for instance in beef production, 

or as long chop with intensive conditioning for dairy 

cows: each application requires a certain chop length. 

“Every farmer decides for him or herself what’s optimum 

for an enterprise. In any case, our silage harvesters are 

technically prepared and adjustable for all requirements 

between 2.0 mm and 42 mm. For this, no special set-up 

is required”, emphasizes Henrik Feldmann, manager of 

product marketing with Krone. 

The Corn-conditioner represents the next phase in 

feed conditioning and this, too, offers a range of very 

different settings with related adjustment possibilities 

to meet customers’ wishes. With differing teeth numbers, 

rpm ranges and steplessly adjustable gap widths, 

this allows intensive feed conditioning to be achieved in 

short and long chop. In the product range are roller, as 

well as disc, conditioners. “Especially the disc conditioner 

is an all-rounder for all chop lengths and with applications 

for maize, with highest conditioning performance.” 

A real plus in flexibility in his opinion is, however, the 

VariLOC transmission in the knife drum belt pulley. With 

the help of this, it is possible within just a few minutes 

of spanner work, to alter drum rpm from 1,250 to 800. 

“Through this action you can increase the chop length 

range by up to 53 % with the MaxFlow knife drum with 

28 and 36 knives. Therefore, it’s possible to change from 

short to long chop, or vice versa, rapidly In short: biogas 

in the mornings and long chop afternoons. And all this 

with a single machine”, concludes Henrik Feldmann. 

With the BiG X, the three proverbial adjustment 

screws for setting the wished-for chop length and the 

conditioning intensity are knife drum, Corn-conditioner 

and the pulley transmission VariLOC, the last only available 

from Krone. Even the knife drum on its own offers 

more than a half-dozen options. These include both basic 

types of drum (“MaxFlow” with 20, 28 or 36 knives 

and “Biogas” with 40 and 48 knives), in the variants with 

28, 36 and 40 knives, the number of knives can additionally 

be halved with relatively limited adjustment effort, 

according to the marketing expert. 

Model 

MaxFlow 20 

MaxFlow 28 

MaxFlow 28 ½ 

MaxFlow 36 

MaxFlow 36 ½ 

Biogas 40 

Biogas 40 ½ 

Biogas 

Conventional forage 

Long-chop silage 

Biogas 48 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 

Length of cut (mm) 

With different equipment options, Krone forage harvesters offer best 

possibilities for all chop lengths between 2.0 and 42 mm. 

41

MENSCHEN PARTNERSHIP 

Land & Technik 

MODELL: 2 PLUS 1 

42

The three partners of Land & Technik 

round one table: From l: Florian and 

Hermann Kasbauer, Erwin Bögl, Alois 

and Arnold Moser. 

“May I tell you a 

little bit of our history?” 

asks Erwin Bögl. 

Please do, we say. 

That’s why we’ve driven into northeastern Austria: 

to learn more about the special cooperation 

between partners Kasbauer, Moser and Bögl. 

BUYING DIRECT FROM THE MANUFACTURER 

Erwin Bögl is managing director and 

partner within the specialist agricultural 

machinery company “Land & Technik”. 

He is the only salesman in the organization, 

to which two other partners belong: 

Hermann Kasbauer and Alois Moser, 

both with their respective workshops. 

How does this business arrangement 

work, and how did the cooperation come 

about? Erwin Bögl was, up until the end 

of the 1990s, staff salesman with a farm 

equipment wholesaler serving different 

workshop outlets in northeastern Austria. 

Just before the millennium, some 

of the workshop owners had the idea 

of separating from the wholesaler. The 

aim was to achieve more independence, 

especially for purchase and sales. One 

problem: none of the workshops could 

afford a salesman on its own. The luck 

in this situation was that Erwin Bögl had 

the urge for a job change. So in 1999 he 

and the workshop owners had the idea of 

together founding the enterprise Land & 

Technik. 

Since then, Erwin Bögl is managing partner 

of Land & Technik with both other 

partners now running two workshop locations 

as independent businesses. The 

Land & Technik sales department with Erwin 

Bögl as manager and three of a staff, 

is responsible for selling new and used 

machinery. Servicing, guarantee work 

and repairs are undertaken by either of 

the two associated workshops. The billing 

point for new machinery guarantee and 

goodwill claims lies with Land & Technik. 

Other repairs are billed for by the workshops 

on their own. Thereby, the workshops 

have the freedom to also repair 

machinery that has not been bought or 

sold by Erwin Bögl. Repairs with used machinery 

taken in part-exchange by Bögl 

are carried out by one of the workshops 

and Land & Technik gets the bill. 

The new machinery sold by Land & Technik 

comes straight from the respective 

manufacturers. ”For instance, since 1999 

we have sold Krone machines and, starting 

in 2007, have become one of several 

Krone importers in Austria and responsible 

for the Schärding region. Additionally, 

we have the status of an A-dealership 

for Fendt and New Holland”, says Bögl. In 

2015 he sold 40 tractors for both makes. 

He adds that while the tractor market is 

a workshop bringer, in the new machinery 

business it is not so exciting as forage 

machinery. 

Theoretically, Erwin Bögl could, for instance, 

sell balers from three different 

manufacturers. But he sells balers, as all 

other machines involved in the forage harvest, 

exclusively from Krone. “For us, this 

represents our bread-and-butter trade 

and I am convinced about the quality of 

the machinery from Spelle”, he explains. 

43

MENSCHEN PARTNERSHIP 

Right up at the top of his sales hit list 

stand the mowers from 2.80 to 3.20 m, 

mainly as front/rear mounted combinations, 

or also the 3 m front mower, mostly 

without conditioner. Second place has 

been conquered by the Rotor self-loading 

forage wagon. But two BiG Ms are operating 

in his area as well, naturally for contractors. 

Krone has a 50 % market share 

for its round balers in Austria. With the 

big square balers, Erwin Bögl can sell a 

maximum of two per year. 

GOOD REFERENCES 

“In a region where traditionally strong 

competitor products were based it was 

difficult, in the beginning, to interest 

customers in buying forage harvesting 

machinery ‘made in Germany’”, recalls 

Erwin Bögl. “In those days we held a lot 

of demonstrations. After the first sale 

successes, I then worked intensively with 

reference customers. In other words, I 

always referred interested potential buyers 

to customers that already worked 

with Krone machines, a strategy that has 

brought very good results for many years 

now”, he says, pulling his reference list 

out of a drawer as evidence. 

In total, Land & Technik deals with 

around 1,000 customers in an area between 

Grieskirchen and Passau. Most 

are farmers, but increasingly contractors 

feature as well. Currently, the sales area 

is expanding, he says. Limits are only 

imposed by distance to workshops. For 

customers, this factor is important. Land 

& Technik is based at the Münzkirchen 

location and it’s here that all new machinery 

is delivered and where the used 

machinery is dealt with. This is also the 

location of Moser’s workshop with the 

Kasbauer facilities 6 km further down the 

road. Customers like their new machines 

to come straight from the workshop that 

will carry out the servicing. And this is 

what Land & Technik arranges. The Kasbauer 

workshop employs 14 and the Moser 

facility has a staff of six. 

Farmers in the Land & Technik sales area 

run units from 20 to 40 ha on average 

with a high proportion of grass and forage 

land and milking herds of 30 to 40 

cows. Often, the farmers are part-time. 

And what’s the market like right now? “In 

years when the milk price is 40 c/l, farmers 

built new housing. Nowadays, with 

less than 20 c/l being paid, there`s not a 

lot of cash left over for machinery buying”, 

points out Bögl. Growth, on the other 

hand, is expected by him from the contractor 

sector. In any case, you’ll search in 

vain for worry lines on the faces of Erwin 

Bögl and his partners. In the past, there 

have also been problem years, reflects 

Bögl. But even in difficult times, this enterprise, 

unique in Austria and winner of 

an innovation award for cooperation, has 

the secret of survival. The target of the 

three partners was independence regarding 

service and sales. “And this is what 

we have achieved”, concludes Edwin Bögl, 

not without pride. 

1 The highlight of 2015: meeting 

of 16 Krone Rotor forage wagons 

that had been sold over 

the previous two years. 

2 Edwin Bögl works a lot with 

reference customers for winning 

new sales. 

1 

2 

44

Franz Hohberger 

HIS 100 th BIRTHDAY 

The farmyard manure 

spreader Optimat was a 

best seller for Krone over 

decades. Its developer, 

Franz Hohberger, recently 

celebrated his centenary. 

Krone produced the farmyard manure spreader “Optimat” 

into the 1990s. In four decades, a total of 

around 200,000 units were pulled off the production belt. 

A real success story. Among those behind this success is 

Franz Hohberger (pictured 1st row, 5th from r), who celebrated 

his centenary in March. From 1957 until 1981, he was 

employed by Krone as master craftsman, and later special 

master craftsman. Together, the engineer Bernd Deupmann 

and Franz Hohberger developed the Optimat. 

Hohberger family members were joined by the Krone family 

in congratulating the centenarian, as well as many former 

colleagues. As special highlight, the Krone choir “Die 

Optimaten” sang a birthday song – performed live in front 

of an Optimat model that was especially driven in front 

of the Hotel Krone for Franz Hohberger’s 100th birthday 

celebrations. 

45


Agricultural contractor Mensching 

STRAW À LA CAR 

Agricultural contractor Thorsten 

Mensching can satisfy almost all 

his customers’ requirements during 

the straw harvest with a fleet 

of nine square balers producing 

three sizes of bales. 

46

TE 

Agricultural contractor 

Thorsten Mensching is able to offer his 

customers a wide range of bale sizes. 

TThe agricultural contractor Mensching from Nienbrügge 

in Schaumburger Land developed out of a 

farm business. Thorsten Mensching took over the business 

from his parents after completing his agricultural 

studies and now runs the enterprise with his brother. 

Nowadays, he contracts with 35 staff members yearround 

in the countryside west of Hanover. Along with 

municipal groundwork and forestry tasks, the enterprise 

focus lies with classic agricultural jobs such as cereal 

combining, slurry spreading and straw harvesting. 

Contractor Mensching has been involved in harvesting 

straw, and all the associated logistics, for almost 20 

years now: “This is mainly carried out for farmers who 

require the straw for their own use. These are farms 

running horses as well as dairy farms and pig breeding 

units”, says Thorsten Mensching. Additionally, straw is 

baled and delivered for a large customer, the Raiffeisen 

Landbund EG (RLB) in Schaumburger Land. RLB pellets 

the straw and sells interregionally. However, there’s 

also a regional market for straw determined directly by 

the previous year’s straw price and actual supply and 

demand. “Now and again, farmers also decide to bale 

larger amounts of straw for marketing themselves”, 

adds the contractor. 

BEING FLEXIBLE 

In total, Mensching produces between 40,000 and 

50,000 bales per year, mainly big square ones. “We 

also do round baling but this represents a smaller proportion 

of our work.” With the nine square balers in his 

fleet, the contractor offers three different sizes of bales. 

“The three machines in 120/90 HDP size from Krone are 

mainly underway for the large customer RLB because the 

resultant large dimension bales handle best. The around 

7,000 to 8,000 bales per year are stored in a hall, and 

these measurements help ensure space is best utilized. 

Pelleting is via stationary press with the pellets used 

for litter by dairy farmers but mainly for broiler barns”, 

explains Thorsten Mensching. 

The bale measurements 120/70 are favoured by most 

of the farms because they are somewhat smaller and 

can therefore be moved around with smaller machinery, 

meaning easier handling for individual farms. “A specialty 

increasingly in demand in the last years is chopped 

straw bales. With the fitted pre-chopping system, 

Krone Prechop, short chop straw with a theoretical 

length of only 21 mm is produced. Chop length is 

adjustable via two selectable counterblades. Prechop 

also achieves intensive shredding of the straw. This 

increases straw absorbency, a characteristic especially 

desired for bedding dairy cow cubicles. Additionally, 

straw pellets are often used as structure feed ingredient 

in ruminant rations.” 

The contractor firm Mensching offers as smallest 

bale the size 80/90. “This small rectangular size is 

favoured by many horse owners and horse pension managers 

because it allows more practical handling or easier 

working with small front loaders or pallet trolleys in restricted 

spaces . However, a big proportion of the harvest 

is baled in the large sizes, i.e. 120/90 and 120/70.” 

47


1 

QUALITY DECIDES 

Thorsten Mensching points out that wheat straw is 

baled in many cases because wheat is grown most in the 

Schaumburg region. But notable amounts of barley, rye 

and triticale straw are also baled. “There’s hardly any difference 

in the utility of the different sorts of straw”, says 

the contractor. “However, absorbency is best with barley 

straw.” Decisive for the choice of straw is the condition in 

the swath. “Because barley is combined first, the straw 

is usually harvested in a good condition and not yet 

affected by fungus. When the weather allows, a lot of 

barley fields will be baled because of this, and because 

this straw is scarce anyway. Later on, the wheat straw is 

no longer yellow but rather grey and then it’s mostly no 

longer baled.” 

This contractor says many dairy farms find they have 

to purchase straw. “For example we have a big customer 

who buys straw still in the swath. This customer puts a 

lot of value on the quality of the material and thus the 

swath is turned and left drying out if the weather is 

good.” The advantage of this strategy lies in the keeping 

the straw clean and in its optimum drying. “Only after 

a further tedding bout do we start baling. At the end of 

this increased input, we generally get a perfect straw 

that can also be mixed in feed.” 

The areas from which farmers buy straw for subsequent 

contractor baling mostly lie a maximum 20 km 

from the farm requiring the material. “We are underway 

over a radius of 30 to 40 km with the balers and 

straw chopper attachments. For balers without chopper 

attachment, the operational radius is a bit smaller.” So 

far, there are not many straw chopper attachments in 

the region and so utilization rate is very good. 

FLUCTUATING PRICE 

Because of the increased danger of fire breaking out 

when using the straw chopper attachment, Thorsten 

Mensching puts much value on continuously keeping the 

machinery clean. The balers require between 200 and 

300 HP. The crucial factor is that machines keep working. 

So durability under high working pressure is important, 

as well as reliability of components such as the knotters. 

The output of balers, in terms of bales per machine, 

in Schaumburger Land with its average field size of 3 ha 

cannot be compared with that achievable in large-structured 

agricultural regions. Added to this, the weather 

in this region can severely affect output with a short 

straw harvesting season. When there’s a year with all 

48

1 Demand for the straw chopper attachment 

increases. 

2 Most of the material is baled in the larger sizes, i.e. 

120/90 and 120/70. 

3 

3 The areas where straw can be harvested viably for 

other farmers usually lie a maximum distance of 20 

km from the customer farm. 

2 

parameters right, i.e. price as well as weather, then 

the demand is extremely good: “For this reason we have 

to have ready a suitable number of high performance 

machines delivering different bale sizes, even when 

these are not fully utilized every year.” Normally, the 

customer insists on a certain size of bale. Because over 

90 % of customers represent regular clients we always 

try to ensure that they get exactly what they want.” 

Over the last years, the straw price has increased 

somewhat, reports this contractor. However, it fluctuates 

strongly. Mainly because different regions face different 

weather conditions. On the other hand, demand 

from livestock farming is similarly high every year and, 

in this relationship, the price sinks when a lot of straw 

is available regionally and rises when the opposite is the 

case. But the amount of straw available elsewhere can 

also affect regional markets and prices because, above 

a certain price, transport over longer distances can become 

acceptable. 

Baler twines 

… that hold ! 

...excellent Twine baling twines live up 

to their promise. Offering unique tear 

resistance and knot strength, these 

twines produce highest-quality bales 

no matter what the conditions. Krone 

excellent twines are the best choice for 

extremely high-density bales as well – 

knot by knot 

www.krone.de 

49

MENSCHEN TELEGRAM 

Federal President Gauck 

STATE VISIT 

As part of his tour 

through the “Educational 

region Emsland”, 

the Federal President 

visited the Maschinenfabrik 

Krone to learn 

about the level of commitment 

in schools, 

universities and business 

societies. Also 

attracting presidential 

interest during the tour 

was the mechatronics 

workshop, the 

Krone-supported 

students’ enterprise 

“ReLaMa” (Restoration 

Agricultural Machinery) 

and the Premos 

5000 wholecrop harvester 

and pelleter. 

50

Imprint 

Publisher: 

Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone GmbH 

Heinrich-Krone-Straße 10 

48480 Spelle 

Tel.: +49(0)5977/935-0 

info.ldm@krone.de 

www.krone.de 

Responsible (FRG media legislation): 

Heinrich Wingels 

Editorial: 

Beckmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG 

Rudolf-Petzold-Ring 9 

31275 Lehrte 

www.beckmann-verlag.de 

Layout: 

Angela Wirtz Grafikdesign 

info@wirtz-grafikdesign.de 

www.wirtz-grafikdesign.de 

Print: 

Bonifatius Druckerei 

Karl-Schurz-Straße 26 

33100 Paderborn 

Photo material: 

When not otherwise denoted: 

Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone GmbH 

bzw. Redaktion 

Page 11: fotolia/Ilyes Laszlo (1) 

Page 13: fotolia/Ilyes Laszlo (1) 

Page 21: fotolia/edisainer (2 Grafiken) 

Page 29: Markus Mitterer (1) 

Page 42-44: Land & Technik (2) 

Page 48: Mensching (1) 

Circulation: 

32,000 copies 

XtraBlatt appears biannually for Krone 

customers. Reprints only allowed with 

permission of publisher. This also applies 

to copying into electronic databanks and 

reproduction on CD-ROM. 

51

I don’t want to shred 

my valuable maize, 

I just want to 

process it 

intensively !! 

In the maize silage sector KRONE offers the 

widest choice of chopping and processing 

systems that cater for all needs, from perfect 

biogas chops to intensively processed long 

chops. 

KRONE forage harvesters give contractors the 

flexibility to tailor their customer service to 

individual needs. 

Just ask us! 

We are happy to advise on the best system 

for your business. 

www.krone.de

XtraBlatt issue 01-2016

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