High-stem fruit trees are the kings of the landscape and undoubtedly give it that certain something. They are ideally suited to the urban, romanticised ideas of ideal agriculture. For Sven Menzi, a farmer from eastern Switzerland, these tall trees mean one thing, especially now during the harvest season: a lot of work! The land belonging to his farm in Niederbüren in the canton of St. Gallen is home to over 1,200 high-stem apple trees in the hilly landscape. Their apples are all special cider varieties such as Boskoop, Blauacher or the Pro specie Rara-listed Schneiderapfel. This year, the trees are bearing more fruit than last year. Many of them have already fallen to the ground, ready for harvesting and delivery to the cider maker.
No more hand-picking
Sven doesn’t like to think back to his youth in this regard: «In the past, we used to laboriously pick up to 150 tonnes of apples by hand within the family.» Fortunately, those times are over for him. He shows us how it’s done on the spot. He starts the modern fruit picking machine and quickly drives under the trees to the apples lying there. Thanks to clever technology, the device gently collects them without damaging them. Before the apples end up in the harvest cart via a mobile conveyor belt, Sven sorts the cider apples on another machine while still in place. Only a few farmers with high-stem fruit trees in Switzerland are as well equipped as Sven. ‘In one afternoon, two to three people and I can harvest 20 tonnes of cider fruit,’ he explains.
Part of productive agriculture
It is not uncommon for the noble trees on Swiss farms to play only a minor role, at best to obtain federal subsidies for additional ecological services. It is different for Sven in Niederbüren. He also appreciates the added value of high-stem fruit trees for the ecology and landscape and is even president of the local networking project. In this project, ecological compensation areas of the farms are connected with each other regionally in order to achieve added value for the environment and biodiversity. But Sven’s business is primarily a grassland operation that is supposed to provide the feed for his 400 beef cattle. This also includes the grass under the high-stem fruit trees. ‘For me, all branches of the business must function economically together,’ he explains. In addition, he also has 300 pigs. The branch of the business that produces cider apples from the high-stem fruit trees is an integral part of the agricultural production for which he is responsible.
More flexibility thanks to Holderhof
Large quantities of cider fruit accumulate here in Niederbüren. And that was a problem for his previous customer: ‘I had to deliver the apples at a predetermined time and then I was usually just filling the entire trailer at the collection point,’ he explains. And this led to resentment among the other farmers who wanted to deliver their smaller quantities at the same time. It also robbed him of the flexibility that a large standard fruit orchard operation with various mainstays needs. In addition, he was annoyed by the industry’s levies on excess quantities. He believes that the system disadvantages professional cider fruit operations. The newly created fruit processing centre at Holderhof in Sulgen came just at the right time. He doesn’t deduct harvest equalisation amounts and leaves the money with his suppliers so that they can invest in professional structures. Sven Menzi was one of the first cider fruit suppliers to sign a purchase contract with Holderhof.
Respect and appreciation
This year, he is delivering his apples to Sulgen for the third time. And he only delivers them when they are really ready for harvesting. These are the ideal conditions for producing the typical Holderhof pure juice. Sven Menzi fulfils both the «IP Suisse» and «Hochstamm Suisse» cultivation criteria. Depending on the market situation, Holderhof decides which channel or label to use to make cider from the apples. Sven believes that this is an advantage for Holderhof. He believes that a good business relationship is always a matter of give and take. He found what he had been missing at Holderhof: respect and appreciation. He is also convinced that Holderhof, with its many innovative apple products, can reverse the decline in the consumption of processed Swiss fruit.
Fallen apples must be harvested as quickly as possible.
Sven Menzi harvests cider apples from 1,200 high-stem fruit trees on his farm.
Delivery of the cider apples to the Holderhof fruit processing centre in Sulgen.
The cider apples are sorted by quality while still in the field before being loaded into the tipper using a conveyor belt.
The fruit picking machine is an integral part of the machinery used for high-stem fruit trees.