The Farmer's Trick Is in the Muck

Oh everyone, what a racket here in Serfaus. After my second breakfast, I'd cosily flopped back down for a snooze, and then this racket started up behind the riding stable. Someone apparently had nothing better to do than drive the tractor back and forth non-stop – no horse can sleep through that. Yaaawn, so I got up to see what was going on!

Still half-asleep, I hopped around behind the stable … oh my goodness, and it stinks something dreadful too! Franz Josef was shovelling away like a man possessed with the tractor, turning over our lovely muck heap and loading the manure onto another tractor that had some strange contraption attached. "Fofi, what on earth are you doing??? You're making such a racket nobody can sleep, and now it stinks terribly too!" "Oh hi Netti, did I wake you? You should really know by now that we spread manure twice a year." "Oh really? Ah yes, now that you mention it, something like this happened in spring too. And where are you taking the manure, and why with such a strange cart?" "That's a manure spreader, it gets mounted on the tractor and spreads the manure nice and evenly across the meadows." "What? You're spreading all that stink on our meadows, where the good hay is made that we then get to eat …. Yuck, I don't like that at all!"

"Oh Netti, the manure doesn't just stay on the grass. The rain washes the valuable manure into the soil, it's really good fertiliser, basically food for the grass so it grows better and you get more hay. Manure contains lots of valuable minerals. That means we don't need any artificial fertiliser. And because everything here is organic, no harmful substances end up on the fields, you don't eat any, and so there are no chemical toxins in the manure either … and so the circle closes. Everything is natural organic produce with no artificial fertiliser or chemical pesticides. That's also how the biodiversity stays so rich, and on our meadows, alongside the grass, all sorts of flowers and herbs grow too, which taste especially good and are especially healthy as well."

"Oh, now I have to think about this … so our manure is actually something quite special … is that why the boss collects it twice a day from our stable?" "Ah, little Netti," laughed Franz Josef, "he mainly does that so you always have clean, dry stalls to sleep in." "Oh, that's really kind of him. But then I'll make sure from now on to leave him especially big and beautiful piles. He'll surely be pleased to get so much wonderful fertiliser for his meadows!"

Firmly resolved to do my best, back to the stable to see whether a third breakfast might still be on the cards … a full belly makes for bigger muck heaps!