“Taking over from my parents was natural”

Raised on her parents’ egg farm, Petra never really questioned about her future. She would be a farmer, like her parents. An only daughter, the now 46 year old Austrian has worked alongside her family on the farm for as long as she can remember. “I never really thought about doing anything but taking over the farm”, Petra says. “I am an only child, my parents were already 39 when they had me and the matter of who would take over the farm was never an issue. I helped my parents, pursued a degree in agriculture at a Rabenau school (a technical high school, red.) until I was 19, and then I came back home because my parents could not manage the farm on their own anymore. So I started working with them and eventually took over. I had grown up hearing that I was the next generation. It was natural.” So natural in fact that Petra does not even stop to think whether she is perceived differently as a woman. She’s in charge and anyone who comes to the farm knows, or learns soon enough: they have to deal with her.

Automation for more autonomy

When Petra met Karl, it was already clear that she would work on the farm full time. Karl, who also comes from a farming family and has a degree in agriculture and in automation engineering, has a full time job in agriculture outside of the farm. His extensive knowledge of agriculture, technology and automation comes in handy on the farm, where he can be found helping Petra after hours.

The farm’s 6000 brown chickens are kept indoors. A conscious decision, even though Petra and Karl have discussed the possibility of letting their chickens roam outside not so long ago. “In 2003, the European prohibition on keeping chickens in cages came into effect. Until then, the chickens were kept in cages on my parents’ farm, so it meant we needed to think hard about the future of the farm and how we would do things from then on”, Petra explains. “We then decided to let them roam free indoors. During the covid period, we had been discussing the possibility of changing again to outside roaming, but the post covid reality put a stop to those plans: the inflation had made everything so expensive that it was simply not possible to make such a huge investment without being able to see it reflected in the egg prices.”

Petra’s farm did decide to invest heavily in automation on the farm after getting rid of the cages. Not the cheapest investment, but one that absolutely feels right to the family. “Thanks to the high level of automation, I am able to manage the farm on my own, without needing additional manpower”, Petra comments. “The eggs are collected and sorted automatically in the egg room. They come to me, and I just have to pick out the dirty or broken eggs. After that, the eggs go to the packer and are stamped, all automatically. It makes my job so much more manageable!”

Petra’s main job is the care of the chickens, egg collection and managing the farm’s finances. “The mornings are for taking care of the chickens. I start with a walk through the stables, check on their feed and water, spot sick or dead chickens and confine those for treatment or remove them. It’s like managing a village. When I am finished around noon, I start work in the egg room.”

Hybrid farming

Karl takes care of the field work outside of his job’s hours. The farm boasts approximately sixty hectares of land where corn, wheat, barley, pumpkins and sugar beets are grown. Most of these crops are used for the chicken’s feed, making the farm virtually autonomous and reducing feeding costs. The pumpkins are produced to make oil. The high level of automation on the farm not only allows Petra to take care of the farm business on her own, it also frees up time she can spend with her family or allows her to build up enough time to buffer during harvest peaks. “The investment was absolutely worth it.”

The eggs are sold through a combination of direct sales and via a local coop, uniting different farms. Since the farm produces all its own feed, the only input they need are soy and vitamins. “This is a huge part of our business’ success: it allows us to reduce production costs. Another advantage is that we not only have an excellent quality of feed, but we are also in full control of that quality: we can check everything ourselves. The best quality of the crops produced on the farm is for the feed, the rest is sold off. The corn is also used to produce corn oil in autumn and a drying installation for cereals can store nearly 800 tonnes of cereals. The dryer works in batches, not in a continuous cycle. In doing so, we reduce the moving of cereals and hence, the damaged or broken grains.”

While she would define her way of farming as conventional, Petra is interested in ways to reduce the use of pesticides and implement organic methods where possible. She calls it “hybrid farming”. Her customers are more than happy to be able to buy local eggs: whether or not they are organic is of secondary importance.

The future 

Already, the future of the farm is taking shape. Petra’s daughters Paula (16) and Caroline (14) are going to the same school their mother attended and are already talking about taking over one day. “We include them in the daily life and work on the farm”, Petra says. “They are very involved in the direct sales part of the farm and interested in creating products to sell. The next step will be a little farm shop on site. Both are very interested in continuing the farm, and although things can always still change, we have a very good feeling about it. To us, a farm shop would be a way to ensure their future as the next generation.”

A very close-knit family, Karl, Petra, Paula and Caroline enjoy working together on the farm, but never losing sight of what’s important: making time for each other and for down time. “Work-life balance is so important. It is something that is so often forgotten by farmers, who tend to go in a 24 hour/day work mode and have no time for school recitals, family outings or rest. From the very beginning, Karl and I agreed that we wanted to do things differently. We wanted to show our daughters that it is possible to run a farm and still make time for family, for relaxation and for off the farm activities. It’s just a matter of implementing a strict structure and keeping to it, but managing your own time is possible when you are a farmer. During harvest time, for example, we all work together but we take it step by step. There is time, however, to all drive up to see Paula perform a dancing championship as a family too. We make the time. It was very important to us to show our daughters that it is possible and crucial to set aside this family and quality time.”

When we ask Petra if she has any advice for young women who want to start a career in agriculture, she says: “working on a farm is not a job, never lose sight of that. Farming is a way of life, a passion.”