The farm
A house with tradition and history
Günther's parents, Olga and Georg, built the farmhouse in 1980.
Ten years later, in 1990, the farmhouse was newly built.
In 2000, the holiday flats were added on the site of the old farmhouse. In 2007, the wood chip heating system was installed, which supplies the entire farm with heat.
In 2019, young farmer Günther took over the Kalchgruber farm. Günther and Angelika then renovated the farmhouse and, besides other things, converted the first and second floors into a flat for the young family.
The Kalchgruber farm family
We are Raphael, Tobias and Tamara, the children of the Staffler family.
Our dad Günther is the young farmer and together with our granddad, Georg repairs everything that needs fixing. They love to spend time in the workshop and do woodworking. Our dad Günther actually works at the Forst brewery in Algund as a technical manager. Grandpa Georg is an operating technician and is responsible for all the district heating plants of the Valley.
Our mum Angelika takes care of the paperwork with our guests and our grandma Olga embellishes our farm with decorations made of natural materials. Our mum and our grandma take care of the cleaning of the holiday flats and look after the physical well-being of the guests.
All together, we take care of the farm animals.
At 1450m peace and quiet are guaranteed.
Sustainability
In your holiday flats, you will find a wood-burning stove, which you can heat with logs. Our wood chip heating plant, however, mainly provides the heat supply. The wood for heating comes from our own forest or from other farmers in the Valley.
For additional energy, we rely on the sun, thanks to our solar system.
Our drinking water comes from our own well, which is located at 1,780 m above sea level. Six farms have the right to draw water from this well, which serves as drinking water and to extinguish potential fires.
The farm animals
Our farm is located at 1,450 m above sea level and includes about three hectares of meadows and five hectares of forest. Due to the altitude, the number of animals we can keep per hectare is lower than that of Valley farmers.
We are a dairy farm. We milk our cows twice a day and then bring the milk to the village, where the collection truck takes it to the creamery in Meran. There our milk is pasteurised or further processed into butter, yoghurt, etc.
We also breed cattle and pigs. Our chickens provide us with fresh eggs every day, which we also delight our guests with.
Our dog, our cats and our rabbits are happy to be petted.
The seasons on the farm
Spring
There is never a shortage of work on our farm. In spring, the allotment gardens and the plants are tended to. The fresh spruce shoots are processed into a kind of honey, an old household remedy against respiratory diseases. The fences are also repaired or renewed in spring if necessary.
Summer
At the beginning of summer, our young cattle are moved to the Marschnell alp, the highest alpine pasture in the Ulten Valley. They spend the entire summer there. In summer, we mow the grass and then bring the hay into the barn. It has to last the whole year as forage for our cattle. There is also a lot to do in the vegetable garden in the summer. Vegetables and herbs have to be harvested and processed. In the farm kitchen, we process different kinds of fruit, which we mostly buy from other farmers, into wonderfully natural fruit spreads.
Autumn
In autumn, it is time for the transhumance, when we move our young cattle from the alpine pasture back to the farm. They then pasture on the meadows around the farm. Our cows also go out to pasture on the autumn meadows. We harvest the last vegetables from our gardens and prepare them for the winter.
Winter
The wintertime brings a bit quiet to the Kalchgruber farm. Nevertheless, there is always some work to be done. The beginning of winter is the time for processing the pork meat into bacon and sausages. If Mother Holle in some winters is kind, we also have to shovel a lot of snow.
