Their Alberta farm, Bearhill Farms, is located beside one of the busiest highways in western Canada, the Highway 2 corridor between Calgary and Edmonton. Today Hubertus and younger son, Joachim, (who holds a degree from Olds College) seed around 2,400 acres of wheat, barley, peas and canola.

The oldest son, Jost, earned a degree at Olds College and a diploma at the University of Alberta. He moved to northern Germany in 1996 to farm in a partnership. "He has canola, cereals and sugar beets," Joachim says. "They farm approximately 2,900 acres. My sister Alexa married a farmer in northern Germany and also farms there with him today." The extended family keeps in touch with e-mail, phone calls and cross-Atlantic trips.

---

Tramlines

"We get a lot of questions about tramlines," Joachim says "If you drive past our fields, you see tramlines over all the fields. We've even had people ask, why do you have so many misses out there? But I wouldn't go without it. It's simple and convenient."

How you make tramlines depends on how you set up your equipment.

Having matching equipment is the easiest way to make tramlines. The Flexi-Coil 5000 air drill is 40 feet wide; the Flexi-Coil suspended-boom sprayer does an 80 pattern. They pull the sprayer with a New Holland TS135A tractor, purchased in 2004.

Joachim Von Freier gets a lot of questions about his tramlines in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. A common practice in Europe, tramlines are unseeded strips for application equipment to follow.

At some point they may upgrade to a new 45 Flexi-Coil air drill. The sprayer will be put back into its original 90 configuration so they can continue making the tramlines. (A 10 breakaway unit at each end of the sprayer, for now, has been replaced with a 5 breakaway.) Right now the drill has Haukaas side arms on it that they are very pleased with. Joachim says that if they upgrade to a new drill they may consider GPS guidance. "That is a cost issue a person would have to look into, and even with a guidance system we would probably still make tramlines," he says.

---

Rotary harvest

Hubertus brought home a New Holland TR™96 in 1988, has stayed with New Holland rotary combines ever since and now relies on New Holland for most of his field equipment.

"We ran that TR96 for five seasons. After that, we have traded combines almost every year. We like the capacity, the cleanliness of the sample and the fact that rotaries keep the grain in the tank."

They traded a TR99 for the current New Holland CR960 Twin Rotor® combine. "The sample from the CR series is even better, and we were always pleased with the TRs," he says.

Field peas make a good test for a combine's ability to clean without cracking. "We have almost no cracked peas, even with difficult harvest conditions."

A nice option on the CR is the ability to set sieves from the cab.

"Programming your crop settings into the monitor is a sensible and convenient way to use your machine to its full capability."

Their yellow peas yielded from 50 to 70 bushels an acre in 2004. However, after three weeks of rain in September, the peas had flattened into a mat about 3 to 4 thick. They gave up on trying to straight cut the peas and solved the problem by putting the draper header on the HW320 Speedrower™ swather and cutting the peas ahead of the combine.

---

Conventional combine

In Germany, Jost has been using New Holland equipment for 10 years. There are more in-crop applications for fertilizer, pesticides and other treatments like growth regulators. Tramlines are normal and necessary to manage for maximum production while preventing significant crop damage. Farmers like Jost use electric switching on seeding equipment to produce tramlines. For instance, Jost's seeder is only 20 wide but he operates a 120 suspended boom sprayer.

The Canadian Von Freiers like their CR960 because it gives a good, clean sample and it's easy to program crop settings from the cab.

Jost is seeding his winter crops in September and October while his Alberta family is harvesting. Jost harvests in July/August. His winter wheat can yield 120 to 140 bushels an acre.

Straw management is a bigger issue in Europe, because of the much higher yields — there's just more material there than seen on the Prairies.

New Holland rotary combines are a newer product in Europe, Joachim says. Conventional combines, like the CX super conventional series, are more widely used in Europe than the rotary combines. Jost uses a CX860 combine and is very pleased with it.

Each brother has tried the other model of combine, but has chosen to stay with what works best in his part of the world for his farming operation.

Joachim says, "Jost demo'd a CR980 in 2003. He said it was excellent. New Holland isn't even bringing the CR980 to the North American market. It's more for the higher yields. We demo'd a CX860. We were very pleased, but wanted to stay with the rotary."

As for dealer support, Hubertus and Joachim are very satisfied. Joachim says "They treat us well. We have good service. We deal mainly with two mechanics for farm calls. As for parts, there's never really a problem. Parts are here quickly if they're not in stock. That's mainly the reason why our whole yard is New Holland and Flexi-Coil," he says.