Germany-Harvesting winter barley

The Holtkoetter family has been farming for more than 11 generations. Marcus Holtkoetter manages the pig farm and grows winter barley, winter wheat, corn and canola. Before planting, the pig manure is spread on the fields for fertilizer. Throughout the growing season, he has watched the crops grow while scouting for insects and disease. It is now harvest time, and in this video, Marcus shows us the equipment used to bring the crop in from the field.

Marcus Holtkoetter

The Holtkoetter family has been farming for more than 10 generations. After doing the typical trainee program, Marcus studied agriculture at the University of Osnabrueck. He manages the pig farm (3,000 feeder pigs) as well as 400 acres of winter wheat, winter barley, corn and canola. He has hosted consumers, farmers and politicians on his farm, as well as sharing the farm's story at conferences. He is active on social media and with mainstream media. He helps connect other farmers across Germany to get more voices heard through co-founding Frag den Landwirt (Ask the farmer), AgChat Germany and spurring GACC exchange programs. He also co-founded the World AgVocate Meeting which brought together dozens from across Europe and North America. He has an aptitude for listening to where other people are, finding common ground and then moving conversations forward from there. Marcus has been recognized by the GFN as a 2023 Kleckner Award for Global Farm Leadership award recipient. He serves the GFN as Communication and External Relations Chair.