Name: Kurt Jenny
Age: 56
Residence: Hagenthal-le-Bas (Alsace, France)
Family: Married to Sandra, no children
Size of farm: ca. 40 ha
Crops: corn (20 ha), wheat (7 ha), meadows (for straw, hey and grassing of the horses)
Animals: 17 horses (12 in pension)
Additional occupation: Animal caregiver (full-time employee)
Work force: him and his wife (both part-time)
Why him: I actually wanted to interview a farmer from Neuwiller, the village where I grew up. But I learnt that out of the 5 farms that existed there when I was a kid, none was left! So I went to the neighbouring village.
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What’s the history of your farm?
I’m the 3rd generation working on this farm. It used to belong to the nobleman of the region, the ‘Baron de Reinach’. My grandfather leased this land. My father then bought it 35 years ago. Back then the farm was big: we had 120 cows, 150 ha of land, 2 workers… But it became less and less profitable, and I decided to sell the land (to a Swiss real estate company) and lease some of it to farm it only part-time.
Why did you stop working on the farm full time?
It’s becoming harder and harder in France to make a living from farming – I would say that you need at least 150 ha and cattle for that. I decided to deliberately reduce the size of my farm and get another job with a fixed income, so that I can keep on working on my farm but without the pressure of making money from it. It’s a hard life though; every day when I come back from my regular job, I work on my farm for at least 4 more hours. But this is the job I like doing!
What kind of ‘technology’ do you use and what do you think about technical evolution in farming?
I use the seeds recommended by the ‘agricultural coperative’ [where farmers in France buy their intrants] and I have to say that they have become ‘better’ over the years. I also use herbicides and fungicides; these products are expensive and I try to use as little as possible of them, but they are needed – I simply don’t think that organic farming can be profitable.
I’m very interested in agricultural machinery – and quite generally I try to keep up to date with latest technologies and agricultural practices. The one thing I got really passionate about over the past couple of years is no-till farming [‘no labour’ in French.]
Can you tell us more about your experience with no-till farming?
I started experimenting with no till about 7 years ago and by now I’m totally convinced by this practice – even if most farmers in the region think that I’m crazy! They still believe in the Alsacian saying “a Bühr ohni Pflüeg esch kai Bühr!” [“a farmer without a plough is not a farmer”] I can testify that there are less erosion problems with no till – for example we don’t have mudslides problems anymore – and that there are more beneficial organisms in the soil such as earthworms. However it’s not without work and it requires special machinery.
What do you like best about farming?
I have grown up with farming, it will always be part of my life. What I like best about it is that ‘you see something’ and that it has a real impact: you put something in the soil, it grows, then you harvest it, you sell it and it’s going to feed people! If I wasn’t here, the supermarkets would be empty! And then, I love my machines!
Kurt and his wife and his wife Sandra with two of their horses
Farmers on my Road 