On the Farm - Winter and Spring

16mm Film - On the Farm - Winter and Spring - BRD 1986

Direction: Lotti Rathgeber

Script: Lotti Rathgeber and Manfred Rathgeber

Camera: Manfred Rathgeber

Cast: Ute Winkelmann, Hermann Winkelmann, Stephan Winkelmann, Kathrin Winkelmann, Marie-Kristin Winkelmann, and others.

Three generations live and work on the Winkelmann family farm in Wietzendorf-Meinholz. Ute Winkelmann, mother of three small children, runs the farm in the Lüneburg Heath with her husband Herrmann and her parents-in-law. The 'Leverenzhof' is not highly specialized, but rather a family business with a wide range of products. The film shows the activities that take place on this farm in winter and spring. The forest has to be maintained in winter. You can see the grandfather and his son cutting down trees. A special event is the slaughter, where one pig is intended for the family and the others are sold. In the smokehouse, sausages and ham are hung over smoke to preserve them. Cleaning the calf barn: the manure is spread on the fields in spring with a manure spreader. In addition, mineral fertilizer is purchased and also spread on the fields. To prepare the seedbed, the fields are plowed, then the seeds are added to the soil by machine. The fields are sprayed against harmful plants and insects. In between, Ute Winkelmann can be seen planting beans in the vegetable garden, and some of the silage (compressed grass) is fed to the cows.