Women & agriculture

Women who are training in agriculture can learn how to drive tractors and operate machines in special courses. They remain entirely among themselves – as farmers.

A program in the series “Our Country” on Bavarian Radio (BR) focuses on the question of how women learn to drive tractors and operate machines . Of course, they can do this just as well as their male colleagues. However, there are special courses for women in which they are taught the basics – without any jokes and just among themselves. And along the way, you also get to meet lots of nice like-minded people.

The fields of technology and agriculture are no longer reserved for men! Women also train in agriculture and are in no way inferior to men as farmers, according to BR. That’s why there is great demand for an agricultural machinery course exclusively for women in agriculture: Here they can learn to drive a tractor and operate machines in a relaxed manner – because women also enjoy technology. Mansplaining has no chance here, explains “Unser Land”.

An episode of the popular series “Lebenslinien” (Lifelines) broadcast by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) revolves around a farmer from Abensberg in the Lower Bavarian district of Kelheim who takes over the family farm – and first has to gain respect in the male-dominated field of agriculture . When her father died, hardly anyone believed that she would take over the farm. Vroni never actually wanted to go into farming. Nevertheless, the 30-year-old finally accepted the challenge and held her own against some experienced farmers .

Just one day after her father’s death, the first call came asking if she would like to lease the land: Vroni, a trained florist, declined. A rocky road begins for the young woman, who now faces major tasks as the farm’s successor. As a farmer in a male-dominated agricultural industry, she must now earn respect. But she wants to continue farming as an asparagus farmer – like many generations of her family before her.

The documentary shows life as a farmer in Bavaria

Directly marketed: Gut Wilhelmsdorf sells milk, meat and potatoes directly to consumers

Maike Schumacher and Friederike Hegselmann have been the new managers of the Gut Wilhelmsdorf farm since May 2023. The two young women are responsible for agriculture on the farm. In addition to 230 dairy cows, they and their employees cultivate 370 hectares of arable land with clover, rye, corn and potatoes. The 125 hectares of grassland are used for grazing dairy cows, dry cows and cattle

“Our dairy requires at least 120 days of grazing with six hours of grazing time per day for the milking animals. We usually go well beyond that,” says farm manager Schumacher. The farm markets around 1.3 of the 2 million litres of milk produced each year itself. Direct marketing is another mainstay of the organically managed farm. Gut Wilhelmsdorf not only sells its own milk in its own farm shop, but also its own meat and potatoes.