Autumn in the Vilstal valley in Lower Bavaria and the grain maize is being combined, potatoes are being lifted and there is plenty of activity on the veg farms in the area. One of these belongs to Martin Schuder, who farms around 190ha with his father. Of this area, 65ha is dedicated to cereals and maize plus there’s sugar beet (15ha), cucumbers (25ha), beetroot (20ha) and cabbage (55ha). During harvest they employ up to 100 seasonal workers on the farm, mainly for harvesting the cucumbers. “Back in 2020, we were also harvesting the cabbage by hand,” explains Martin. “But it became increasingly difficult to find seasonal labour.”
The cabbage goes
