Young breeders trip to the Netherlands
At 5.30 in the morning we started our trip to the Netherlands. With 41 young breeders on board we first visited 2 farms in Germany before crossing the boarder. After approximately two hours of driving we already reached our first goal – the farm of the family zum Feld in Ahlerstedt. Here we wanted to visit the highly interesting farm but another goal was to visit Svenja Plein (responsible for public relations of the young breeder association until last year). Svenja is responsible for the herd management on the farm since November 2009. Meanwhile 770 cows are milked on the farm with an average milk performance of 10,000kg. Despite the high number of cows the farm never bought animals. Animals out of the own breeding program realized all herd growth and also breeding features are paid attention to. This is why it is not surprising that “Lordas” is on the German top list. Lordas comes from the farm “zum Felde”. 270ha croplands are worked on. With 9 employees farm manager Uwe zum Felde organizes all farm procedures. Next stop was the farm of the Cordes family in Fechum, Hasselünne. They moved there together with 200 cows in a new pen stable with 433 resting pens in December 2009. Since then the number of animals rose to 370. The herd average is 9,800kg milk. With the usage of the new stable they also installed a new milking system. They now milk with a 36-milking carousel. In time for dinner we reached the youth hostel in Sneek. The canal right next to the hostel invited some of us to take a refreshing bath.
- group picture on the farm of the Cordes family
On Tuesday morning we started at 8.00 am to Giethoorn, the so-called Venice of the Netherlands. There we first met our companion Frans. He put together our program for the Netherlands and was our translator and tour guide. In Giethoorn we made a trip on the canals with small boats.
Next was the exploration of the agricultural structures of the Netherlands. The Prins family bought its farm in 2005. There they build a pen stable for 80 cows and female offsprings in 2008. The average milk performance of the mostly Black Holstein herd is 8,500kg milk. This milk amount comes from feeding grass silage, straw and additional pellet feeding. They use a milking robot for milking.
After a comfortable picnic among the cows along the Ijssel we started again to visit the goat farm of the Palland family. They milk 700 goats in a double side-by-side 32-milk stand and milk approximately 1,200kg in one lactation. The animals are fed with hay, straw and pellets. Another part of the farm are 50 Black Holstein cows with a milk performance of 10,000kg milk. For the future the family plans to raise the number of goats to 1,200 animals.
At the end of the day we made a shopping tour through Kampen where we bought postcards or ice cream. Later we drove back to our hostel in Sneek.
On the next morning we had to pack our suitcases because another hostel was our goal for the day. Once again we visited a farm close to Kampen. It was a tomato plantation. The von Belt family grows tomatoes in greenhouses on 7ha. Three times a week they harvest the tomatoes. Harvesting starts in March and lasts till October. They start to grow new tomato plants in November.
Next stop was the calf-fattening farm of the Altena family, again close to Kampen. 800 calves stay on the farm for six months. With 2 weeks they are brought into single pens and later they are held in groups of up to 8 animals. They feed the animals with milk basically. It is said that they feed 10% of the animal body weight in milk, which means that the animals get 18kg milk at the end of fattening divided into two meals a day. They also feed corn silage. The family works with an in-out system. This means that all calves are brought in at the same time and leave the farm at the same time. Then they have to clean the large stables and get ready for the new animals.
We had some spare time so our tour guide suggested visiting his son’s farm. There he showed us the tractor of his tractor pulling team (The Judge) and not only the boys were impressed by the 2400 ps strong engine.
Our next goal then was the herd of the Van’t Hof family in Oosterwolde. They participate in national and international shows on a regular basis. They presented 8 impressing milk cows out of 50 and a daughter group of 3 animals. We then held a small judging competition where we judged four cows and had to present our results in the end. Each team got small prize.
- animal judging competition on the Stouwdamshof, Oosterwolde
- the champion team of the animal judging competition
On Thursday our first stop was the flower auction in Aalsmeer, the biggest in the world. Each day 48mio plants are sold in 4 auction rooms.
Then we drove to the farm of Nel and Niek Verhoef in Wieringerwerf. They keep 90 Red and Black Holstein cows with a milk performance of 10,5000kg milk with 4.25% fat and 3.40% protein. This farm already had nine cows with a life performance of over 100,000kg.
We held our lunch break on the 32 km long dam between the North Sea and the Iysselsea.
Last stop in the Netherlands was the farm of Kobus Eppinga in Sondel. 70 cows live in a brand new pen stable with a 18-swingover side-by-side. We also met a Zabing-daughter from Schleswig-Holstein that was sold on last years DHV show.
In the evening we played volleyball and soccer and used our last energy before our trip home.
On the way home we stopped for a little canoeing tour on the Aller. Not everybody made it back to shore dry.
Even if the people from the Netherlands could not reach our hearts during the soccer world cup – they made it during our young breeders tour.
- hopefully Uwe will drive our bus next year again and does not change the engine
- 41 young breeders on the Aller
Rinderzucht Schleswig-Holstein eG |