Two business premises, two Weidemanns — there was never any other option

As the first Weidemann Hoftrac 1250 was used by Friedrich Straten on his farm in 2011, it was clear that this machine would be used heavily and for many different operations.

At 650 operating hours per year, it runs for many hours every day in indoor livestock systems and manages 200 cows plus breeding. The range of tasks performed by the 12-series machine is astonishingly large:
moving the feed forward with the wheel, fetching remains of feed with the rubber blade and bucket from the stable, removing remains of feed with the rubber blade from the silage heap, mucking out stables with the grab bucket, spreading hay in the stables of cows and young animals, storing and transporting square bales of straw and round bales of hay, moving feed sacks with the pallet fork, keeping the farm clean with the sweeping machine, and carrying out activities in the garden and service work with the working platform — and much more besides! “A whole lot of other things occur to you with this machine,” says Friedrich Straten, who has already equipped himself with a large selection of attachments that he and his staff are able to use optimally almost every day. The machine is fitted with a fold-down overhead guard. It is therefore easy to enter existing buildings with low ceilings.

The operation in Barßel in the administrative district of Cloppenburg manages a total of 450 hectares of arable land at two locations. Corn is being cultivated on two-thirds of this area. 85 % of this is used as feed for the animals and for the power supply the farm’s own 500 kW biogas plant. 15 % can be additionally marketed. On around a third of the area, the grass is harvested as a basis for the animal fodder. The farm is managed as a family operation and has 4 permanent staff and 2 part-time seasonal staff. This size is unusual for an operation, even for Kloppenburg — Friedrich Straten was able to take over a second farm a few years ago, allowing both areas to be combined.

The second farm location is used to rear approx. 200 fattening bulls. Here too, it became clear very quickly: An additional Weidemann was required. Because the farms were located 10 kilometres apart, it was impossible to supply both animal stocks using just one machine. An additional Hoftrac therefore came into play in March 2013: Friedrich Straten decided on a slightly more powerful 1370 CX50 for the bull-fattening farm, equipped with a third control circuit (comfort) and the faster rapid action coupling to make changing the tools even easier. At these business premises, feeding using a feeder attached at the front for grass and corn silage with self-filling is in the foreground. This equipment mix comes into its own in the areas of a building where feed mixers cannot be used. The operator has a clear view of the front tool attachment..

The food is loosened as it is distributed, which makes it easier for the animals to eat. Otherwise, the machine is used with almost the same attachment equipment as on the dairy farm. There is even a second work platform to be able to work at heights on the second farm solidly and safely, e.g. to clean roof gutters. Both machines run with a long load arm to optimally exploit the lifting height. Dealer Daniel Neumann from Neumann Landtechnik GbR in Harkebrügge has advised when doing this that the machine be fitted with wide tyres to increase stability when handling large amounts of material. Water filling of the tyres is also an aspect of the 13-series.

“Decisive for the customer is which tasks he wants to deal with on his farm and the heights and widths of the passages in his buildings — I can therefore recommend the optimal machine for him with the correct equipment,” says Daniel Neumann. Naturally, Friedrich Straten also has a very exact idea of the dealer he trusts: Decisive for him is also availability on Sundays and holidays — days on which the animals also have to be fed. “It is very important for me to know that I can rely on my contact person 100% and that when needed, I will be helped in a timely manner, whether with a loaned machine, or when spare parts need to be available quickly. Of course, this applies to my whole machine fleet,” says 31-year-old business economist Friedrich Straten. For him, good, sustained advice is the basis for a long-term co-operation with an agricultural equipment merchant.