Excursions
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The university association organizes a variety of excursions that shed light on different topics in agriculture and beyond. These mainly take place as day excursions and are carried out by bus and, in the vicinity of Witzenhausen, by bicycle.
Excursion winter semester 2024/25
The white gold of K+S - curse and blessing
Where to?Merkers Adventure Mine (K+S)
When:31.01.2025 from 08:30 to 17:30
Costs: 30 € (HVW members 25 €)
The excursion starts at 08:30 in Witzenhausen at the Tegut and after arrival in the potash region in the border area of Hesse/Thuringia we will meet with the citizens' initiative "For a Werraland worth living in" at the foot of the 200 m high Monte Kali. Together with BUND, the association has filed a lawsuit against the K+S Group over the salting of the Werra and we will learn more about the negative consequences of potash mining in the region.
For lunch we will be served freshly cooked soup from the ÖX organic farm in Frankershausen, and hot and cold drinks will also be provided. Please select on the registration form whether you would like the soup to be vegetarian or with meat.
In Merkers we will meet with Lukas Bangert, who is a regional consultant for K+S for the western region, which includes Hesse. We will be given an introductory talk about the Group's agricultural products above ground and will have a more in-depth technical exchange with him underground. To do this, we will go to a depth of over 800 meters underground in what used to be the largest potash mine in the world. We will travel almost 21km underground by truck in 3 hours and gain an insight into the geology and mining techniques. Please note that it is between 21 and 28°C in these depths all year round.
We expect to return to Witzenhausen at around 6 pm.
Due to the capacity of the mine trucks, the excursion will take place with a maximum of 30 participants; if there are more registrations, there will be a waiting list.
The registration form will be activated on 06.01. and the registration period ends on 24.01.
Anyone who becomes an HVW member by 24.1. can book the discounted price. Membership has many advantages: https: //www.uni-kassel.de/fb11agrar/hochschulverband-witzenhausen/mitgliedschaft
Past excursions
Upländer farmer's dairy Willingen
The excursion with 30 participants started on Saturday, January 27 at 8:00 a.m. in Witzenhausen at Tegut and our first stop was the Milchmuhseum in Willingen, where the plant manager of the farmer's dairy, Andreas Siegert, told us in detail about the concept and history of the dairy and showed us films of the production processes while we tasted dairy products. He then gave us a tour of the newly built dairy and gave us an insight into the production halls.
After a hike, we stopped for lunch at the Graf Stolberg Hütte above Willingen and enjoyed one of the most beautiful views over the Sauerland region with wonderful weather, good food and drinks. The return journey took us via Waldeck, where we had our last stop of the day at the Bio Agrar Meyer farm, which has been supplying the Upländer Bauernmolkerei dairy since 2014. They keep 120 dairy cows and farm 280 hectares. We were given an interesting tour of the barn by the farm manager, who is also on the board of the cooperative, and were given a view of the dairy from the side of the supplying farms. After an eventful day, we returned to Witzenhausen at around 6 pm.