Combine Harvesting

Yesterday Andrea and I got the opportunity to ride in a combine harvester to see how they harvest rapeseed. One of the Rotarians owns a farm and let us ride in the combine harvester and see where the rapeseed is taken after being harvested.

Combine Harvester

I got to ride in the combine harvester first, while Andrea was taken to see where they store the rapeseed once it's been harvested. It was really cool to see how the machinery works. First, it cuts the rapeseed and spins through these blades into the machine. Next, a cylinder separates the grain from the seeds. The seeds are stored in the harvester and the grain is disposed behind the harvester as it drives. 

If you would like a better understanding of how the machine works, you can read about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_harvester

The machine moves pretty slowly, but it's impressive how much it's able to do. When I arrived there, they had already harvested 86 tons of rapeseed, and they still had another field to harvest.

After being in the combine harvester, Andrea and I switched and I went with one of the other farmers to see where they deposited the rapeseed after it had been harvested. We drove in a little tractor pulling a big container filled with rapeseed to a little area with stables and people riding horses. They weighed the container before emptying it, then again after emptying it. They also had to take a sample and test it to see how much water was in the seeds. 

Rapeseed

Although we didn't get to see them today, they also had pigs on the farm. Erik, the Rotarian who owned the farm, works at the Danish Crown which is a Danish food processing company dealing primarily in meat processing of pork and beef. It is Europe's largest pork producer. He was telling me that Denmark relies primarily on exporting their goods to the rest of the world. According to the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Denmark exports 90% of the production of pigs and pig meat. 

"Exports of pig meat account for almost half of all agricultural exports and for more than 5 percent of Denmark’s total exports. More than 70 percent of Danish pig meat production is exported to other EU countries, and the remaining part is exported to countries outside the EU."

(http://www.agricultureandfood.dk/danish-agriculture-and-food/danish-pig-meat-industry)

Denmark produces approximately 28 million pigs annually and slaughters about 20 million. The Danish population is around 5.7 million people, so the ratio is around 4.9 pigs per person. If we took that ratio and set it to the population of the United States (323 million), that would be around 1.5 billion pigs. So the Danes produce a LOT of pigs.

We also got to see an old farmhouse on the farm. Some Danish houses, farms, churches, etc. are preserved so that people can see what they looked like many years ago.

I'm not sure when this one was built, but it was very interesting to see how people were living in the past.

Thank you so much to Erik for letting us see your farm and ride on the combine harvester. It was really a very interesting day and I won't forget it. Thank you also to Per for arranging this, it was a great opportunity and I'm really glad we got to do it.

Danish Word of the Day:

gård- farm