You are greeted by a sea of yellow flowers when you drive from Zusatzorf to Langenpreising.
The Danube Silphie is cultivated here as an energy plant for biogas plants.
Langenpreising
- When you drive into the village from Zusatzorf, you are greeted by bright yellow eye candy on both sides.
“Welcome to the Silphien Blossom Sea,” it says at the entrance to Langenpreising.
The flowering areas that are in the fields of biogas operator Franz Heilmaier are the Danube Silphie, which is mainly grown as an energy crop for biogas plants.
If you research the Internet, you find out that four large family farms near Lake Constance came up with the idea in 2010 to supply their businesses with energy from their own biogas plant. A first plan was to build only a very simple system for personal use, but from the beginning with very high demands on the sustainability of the entire project. For this reason, the farmers started looking for alternatives to maize as soon as their plant was built.
It is said by chance that the daisy family streaked Silphie was discovered, which was still considered a real exotic in 2012.
According to the information, the Silphie project has paid off: The cultivation area has been expanded from year to year.
The energetic crop became a business model, the Silphien seeds are sold by Metzler & Brodmann Saaten GmbH including the cultivation concept under the brand name Donau-Silphie.
For this purpose, the experts set out every spring with four tractors to plant Silphien all over Germany and neighboring countries.
Silphien - "energy plant with a future"
The Langenpreisingen biogas operator Heilmaier became aware of the plant, which originally came from North America, at an information event. A high area yield and the ecological advantages of permanent cultivation make them increasingly interesting for biogas production. And so the tractors of the above-mentioned company moved into some fields in Langenpreising. A total of around four hectares were planted. Even if the cultivation of this "energy plant with a future", which costs 2000 euros per hectare, is not exactly cheap, the farmer was primarily concerned with spreading the flowering areas after the residential development, since, as he explains, “From the second year onwards, no more plant protection has to be applied”. Once sown, the plant, which has a high proportion of biomass, cannamely to be harvested over 15 years.
In the first year of sowing it only forms indigenous leaves, only from the second year onwards does it grow with its yellow flowers to an imposing height of up to four meters.
The harvest time takes place in the period from mid-August to mid-September.
A chopper from a contractor is then used for the whole plant silage.
The Silphie has a long flowering period from the end of June to mid-September, at a time when otherwise few flowering plants are available.
With its golden yellow flowers, it creates habitats with a high quality of life as a popular insect and bee pasture and is also a visually more attractive alternative than maize in this respect.
In addition, it provides excellent game coverage for roe deer and also provides good cover for small game in spring, autumn and winter, as the farmer says.
According to Heilmaier, you can now also find Silphien honey on offer.
The silicon fibers are also used as a raw material for paper.
At the entrance or exit of Langenpreisingen you can enjoy nature on a kind of high seat when the weather is nice and listen to the great concert of bees, bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies and other field dwellers.
Sylvia Stadler