Farmers open their farms

How do farm animals live on farms? What machines do farmers use to do their work in the fields and in the barn? What food is grown in the fields? Hans and Thorsten Klug will be answering these and many other questions at Goethestraße 23 in Heuchelheim during the Open Farm Day on 15 June. On this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., they will provide an insight into their everyday work.
The event will kick off with a church service at 10 am. The official opening will then be attended by the Mayor of Heuchelheim Lars Burkhard Steinz, District President Dr Lars Witteck, the Vice President of the Hessian Farmers' Association Armin Müller and the Technical Director of Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) Reinhard Paul, among others. This is because Hans and Thorsten Klug are not only farmers, but also shareholders in MIT.BIO Biogasanlage Heuchelheim GmbH, a subsidiary of SWG.

3 million kilowatt hours of heat per year
The biogas plant on the premises of the two farmers in Heuchelheim officially went into operation at the end of April. The modern, highly efficient plant is one of the most important components of the energy transition in the region and helps to save climate-damaging CO2. On the premises of farmers Hans and Thorsten Klug, a combined heat and power plant (CHP) produces more than 2 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year. This is enough for around 600 households. The combined heat and power plant also generates over 3 million kWh of heat per year - enough for around 160 single-family homes. The Rinn & Cloos industrial estate and the existing heating network in the area of the Heuchelheim swimming pool are supplied with heating energy. Short access and delivery routes and an optimised mix of biomass with a high proportion of liquid manure played a decisive role in the planning. The plant was therefore designed to work efficiently with the biomass available on site: The slurry is channelled directly from the Klug farmers' barn into the biogas plant's fermenter. This means that there is no odour nuisance for local residents. In addition, the farmers supply feed residues and solid manure as biomass and benefit from the fact that they can spread the nutrient-rich fermentation residues as fertiliser on their fields.