Farm No. 4233 - A long goodbye
Photo book
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Ruth Wüthrich haying: "How would we have bought the ever more expensive machines?"
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Hans Wüthrich in the grass silo: "We didn't work any worse, it was the circumstances."
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When wiping in the threshing floor: "Many go bankrupt under such conditions. But we did it."
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Ruth Wüthrich in the passenger seat of the tractor on her way home from the field. While mowing hay she picked a bouquet of daisies and a handful of elderflowers.
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Hans Wüthrich spreads slurry with the old wooden slurry barrel.
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Ruth Wüthrich and her grandchild bring the milk to the cheese dairy.
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Hans Wüthrich fertilizes the young corn by hand.
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Hans Wüthrich has fallen asleep in front of the television. The days begin on the farm at five in the morning, and hardly anyone is finished before eight in the evening. The daily work in the stable only takes seven hours.
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Hans Wüthrich at the sugar beet harvest.
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Tractor ride to the woods:
"This is Rüebliland, Rosenköhliland. There is plenty of work."
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Ruth Wüthrich in the silo. The still hot sugar beet pulp is delivered from the sugar factory in the railway wagon and has to be unloaded in one day.
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Cleanup after the storm "Lothar": "Everything went so fast, it's almost unbearable."
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Hans sawed off the lowest branches of an apple tree because they hung down so far that the grass could no longer be mowed. At home he will make firewood out of them.
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Hans Wüthrich on his way to the stable: "We taught our boys while they were still at school that this probably wouldn't have a future here".
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One day, potato cultivation came to an end. The middleman, who was striving for more efficiency, only wanted to accept the potatoes in large containers. The conventional sacks were no longer accepted. "No more sacks! Get ready for it."
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Three months before the closure of the farm: Hans and Ruth Wüthrich have just reached an agreement with the neighbouring farmer on the lease of their land.
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The canton had written to the farmer Hans Wüthrich: "Dear Mr Wüthrich. We received your letter of 8 December 1999 and noted it with interest. We note that you will give up the farm on 1 May 2000 and will not keep any more animals afterwards. In view of this, we consider your farm to have been rehabilitated".
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Hans Wüthrich and the cattle dealer: All animals are sold, but the price is disappointing.
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April 2000, just before the end: The cows are picked up: "What could we have done?"
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Within a few minutes the barn is empty: "It's almost like giving away a child."
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Hans Wüthrich was able to sell four animals to acquaintances in the Bernese Oberland, two went to the butcher's, the remaining seven went to the dealer. He took them to the Jura mountains, where their trail got lost.
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Farewell to the animals: "We therefore consider your farm to have been rehabilitated," it said in a letter from the canton.
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The day after. The stable is cleaned and freshly whitewashed: "But we are both still healthy."
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Only the coiled tail cords remain in the stable: "Our time is not all time."
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Ruth Wüthrich in the empty stable: "It will still hurt for a while afterwards."
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Farm No. 4233 - A long goodbye
Photo book with texts by Peter Pfrunder and Balz Theus
Publisher Scheidegger & Spiess 2021
168 pages, 73 duotone illustrations
22.5 x 30 cm, Hardback
My parents' farm, like many other small family businesses in Switzerland, had to close down. With the liberalisation of the market, their traditional labour-intensive production method no longer paid off. I accompanied her during her last year as a farmer with my camera until the last cow was sold, the land leased and the stable cleaned.
Insight into the book and order in the shop
