Before our harvest prep really got going this spring, my harvester and I decided to take a trip to Denmark to see his family.
We hadn’t been back there in two years, so we were a bit overdue. It was very nice to spend some time with his family and friends and celebrate our nieces’ 7th birthday. We were also able to have sort of a reunion dinner with our former Danish employees. We really enjoyed spending the evening talking to the guys. It was especially rainy on the west coast of Denmark while we were there so I don’t have any pictures of his dad doing field work, but they do raise canola, beardless wheat, oats, barley and rye. Hopefully next time we’re there the weather will cooperate a little better.
We were able to find some super inexpensive flights to Girona, Spain, so we arranged to see one of our former employees, Marti. We hadn’t seen Marti in 2 years so it was nice to catch up with him and see his country. Catalonia (the northeast region of Spain that is bordered by France to the north and the Mediterranean to the east) is breathtakingly beautiful. It is very different from what we are used to, but, thankfully we traveled there to see something different!
Besalu, Catalonia, Spain. It really is that beautiful in person!
The house we stayed at while we were there was called Cal Santu. A beautiful place set just outside of town. We would highly recommend this house to anyone visiting the area!
First, their fields are pretty small. And I don’t mean like a short 40 kind of small, I’m talking like a half an acre small. A really large field would be about five acres in size. It seems crazy to think that they would have fields this small, but it is a pretty small country with a lot of people, so space is limited.
A terraced canola field.
The size of a typical Catalan field. We saw fields smaller than 1/8th of an acre and a field as large as five acres.
Marti explaining Catalan farming practices to Anders.
We visited Marti’s boss, Miquel, and saw his farming/custom farming operation. He farms 250 acres and custom farms around 2,000. Those 2,250 acres are spread out amongst 300 to 400+ fields. (A 40’ head would make short work of some of those fields!) Fifteen tractors, two combines and several slurry tanks round out his farming operation.
Four of the five combines that Marti’s boss, Miquel, owns.
Walker combines are a common site in Europe.
Miquel also has a 700 head feedlot that is regarded as a large feedlot for their area. Their feedlots are quite different from ours in the fact that they are all open-air and under a roof. Their facility was pretty clean and all their cattle were in very good condition. It was a pretty impressive set-up!
In Catalonia tires can’t be used on top of silage pits because of problems with standing water and mosquitoes. Instead, they use gravel to weigh the plastic down.
The outside of one of the feedlot barns.
In 1997, due to the BSE crises, the EU mandated that all cattle have the same tag in both ears as one of the ways to help ensure traceability from birth to slaughter.
Cows lined up at the feedbunk.
One of the two open-air barns at the feedlot.
We also visited Marti’s grandparents, Joana & Miquel and I absolutely loved their house! Their “basement” was actually where the livestock lived up until about 40 years ago. Homes were built this way so the heat from the animals would rise and help warm the main floor where the families lived. The stalls, gates and feed bunks were all still there, waiting to be used. Joana & Miquel lived on the main floor and years ago, the top floor was used to dry and store grain. You would never find a home like theirs here in the States. Marti’s grandfather, Miquel, also has around 600 head of hogs. Sadly, the barns were being power washed that day, so we couldn’t go through them.
Marti’s grandparents, Joana & Miquel’s house. Stone houses are the norm in Spain. You won’t be able to find a stick built house there.
At the end of Joana &Miquel’s house is an area for storing hay and straw used for the livestock that were housed under the house (in the “basement”).
In addition to the stalls, there is also a faucet/sink for watering livestock.
Stalls, complete with feed bunks, hay feeders and stall doors.
Since livestock are no longer housed on the first floor of the house, it is mainly used for storage. In Catalonia, it is common to take the cut side of a tomato and rub it on bread that is used for sandwiches or served with dinner. Here Miquel uses one of the larger stalls for drying and storing tomatoes.
We then went to tour the chicken farm that Marti’s mom, Gracia, and uncle, David own. Their three barns hold around 18,000 chickens each, so they have a total of about 54,000 birds that they feed, water and care for. Those are pretty similar to what we would see here in the States – very automated.
Our time in Catalonia was complete with a quick trip to Barcelona, visiting beautiful places you only see in pictures and a cookout at the home of Marti’s friends, Quim & Mariana. Thank you to Marti, Edu, Gracia, David, Ivona, Miquel, Quim, Mariana, Joana & Miquel, Jordie & Julia for a wonderful trip and letting us peek into your farming operations!
The beginning of our Catalan feast!
Everyone that made our trip to Catalonia amazing! (We were only missing Edu that night)
Now, it’s back to our reality! We had all of our guys fly in last week, so we’ve been busy in the shop, getting Social Security cards, bank accounts set up and ready for CDL tests.
I hope everyone’s year is off to a good start. We’ll be hitting the road before we know it!
Amanda and her husband, Anders, own BT Harvesting and call Kiowa, Kansas "home, home". Amanda grew up on a farm in Illinois. Prior to meeting Anders in 2011, she was an Ag Teacher and knew very little about the custom harvesting lifestyle. In 2013, she joined Anders for the full harvest run and hasn't looked back. Amanda wears many hats during the harvest journey - chef, payroll clerk, accountant, tractor driver, "go-fer", combine operator, photographer, mechanic, etc.
