Regina Hofmann from Baiern works here today, there tomorrow.
The 24-year-old woman is a village helper.
She steps in when there is a “fire” in a yard.
Baiern / Ebersberg
- Regina Hofmann goes into the kitchen of an 80-cows farm in a hamlet near Ebersberg.
The 24-year-old makes coffee, takes cutlery out of the drawer and eats a piece of apple pie.
She needs strengthening, so she's going out to work in the stable.
Hofmann knows the cows, she knows how to milk the animals.
The grabbing woman throws hay from a store and feeds the cattle with it.
It's all routine.
She greets the old farmer, he is sweeping hay off the ground with his back bent.
Hofmann knows very well that, despite his advanced age, you can't stop him from working anyway.
Not a trace of uncertainty, and she doesn't even belong to the farm.
Regina Hofmann is a village helper.
The temporary worker from Baiern works on the farm for ten weeks.
The farmer who represents Hofmann had slipped on a thin hose after milking and broke her leg.
Later, her husband fell off the ladder too, with a broken heel bone.
The farmers cannot do the work in the barn and household.
There are too many tasks for their children and parents alone.
What to do?
Regina Hofmann helps out.
Village helper: deployed in crises and emergency situations
When farmers die, are overworked, sick or become pregnant, temporary workers take over their duties.
Drive cows into the milking parlor, feed calves, cook for the family, clean the house.
The specialist also takes care of nursing and educational tasks.
In crises and emergency situations.
Your area of application: the districts of Ebersberg and Rosenheim.
Village helpers are trained housekeepers
Farmers unable to work turn to the Maschinenring, an agricultural association.
She arranges the temporary workers.
Assignments last from three days to several months.
In the event of death, there is a twelve-month budget.
Village and farm workers are paid for through agricultural social insurance.
Farm workers have trained as farmers, village workers are trained housekeepers with a focus on agriculture.
100 assignments are arranged per year
Maschinenring Ebersberg arranges 100 work placements at farms a year, says managing director Josef Winkler.
There are 25 assignments in private households during the same period.
They too are entitled to a village helper, for example if a mother of small children falls ill.
The local machine ring has a total of 25 women and men, they work as industrial and village helpers.
Some of the workers are self-employed, others are employed or part-time.
The temporary workers can by no means cover the inquiries to the machine ring, says Winkler.
Village helper says: "It's my dream job"
Hofmann, who works as a self-employed person, confirms this: "There was little going on during Corona, but now it's going on forever."
“It's my dream job.” She has already worked for around 100 companies.
She has had a lot of experiences: farms so dirty that the 24-year-old saw no difference between a house and a stable.
Farms where she had to milk strange cows all by herself.
Hofmann has accompanied expectant mothers and experienced tragic deaths.
It is a diverse job, says Hofmann.
It also runs at the social limit.
The village helper often gets up at 5 a.m. to come back home after a 14-hour working day.
She visits up to four farms a day: milking cows in the morning, then cleaning the bathroom, cooking food in the afternoon and milking again later.
A maid in the 21st century.
“You get very deep into the family,” says Hofmann.
She knows their stories and secrets.
Friendships are also often formed.
Your dream: your own farm.
It often happens to village helpers that they marry into one of the farms, says Hofmann.
From her year in the village helper school (only twelve women), five women are still working in the profession.
Many of the others now have their own farm.
Until her dream comes true, the village worker helps farmers in need.
Hofmann knows where the coffee is on the Ebersberger Hof and that she has to let the old farmer work.
It's like it's their own yard.
At least for a few hours a day.
Collaboration: Raffael Scherer
