Mark van Kranenburg (30) and his father (59) have a dairy farm in Creil (municipality of Noordoostpolder) with 110 dairy cows and accompanying young stock. They have 24 hectares of their own land, they exchange with arable farmers and grass and maize are also grown on 38 hectares. The activities at the company are carried out by father and son and Mark also works outside the home as a freelancer.
Kranenburg has had a Milk and Feed Pro subscription that he uses to keep abreast of all the things going on in the industry. "The information that's available is just important to keep the business going."
How did the company come about?
"My grandfather, my father's father, came here from the Betuwe in the early 60s. My father then took over the company from his father and so it continued for a while. I have been in a partnership with my father for five years now. and the takeover is currently in full swing. The official takeover is not really set on a date, it just depends on how it goes."
What is important within the company?
"I think the health of the cows is an important point within the company and of course they also have to give a lot of milk. For this, the feed we give the cows has to be of quality and everything around this has to go well. I also think it is important to keep an eye on market prices in the sector and read the news about it, which is why I check the website of Boerenbusiness† It is easy and can be done quickly. When I'm on the computer, I click that. They are relatively short messages, which I like; so I read through it quickly. I think this is an advantage of the website."
How is the business kept going?
"Milking enough cows and with this we can supply enough milk is the way we keep the company going. Within the company I do everything myself together with my father. We only outsource the farm work. We do the shaking and raking ourselves, but we drive manure mowing and silage is outsourced to the contractor. We are currently milking 1,2 to 1,3 million liters of milk and the aim is to go to 1,4 million liters. more cows; the barn must be full. Our company can distinguish itself because we can exchange a lot of land with arable farmers. There is a relatively large amount of countryside available in our area and there are few cattle farmers in our area. manure disposal here is relatively cheap."
What are the main market developments?
"Market developments that we have to keep an eye on at the moment are mainly in the field of FrieslandCampina. We supply milk to FrieslandCampina and of course everything is happening there at the moment. A lot of members are stepping up, so they are going to completely turn the financing upside down Of course you can't change that much, because you just supply the milk, but then… the delivery certificates must of course be closely monitored.We also have no real control over the milk price, we cannot control that. We can only keep an eye on it, that's why I think it's important to be a member, you just have to read the news every now and then. I check the main page of Boerenbusiness and from there I click through to the posts that I find interesting. That way I can see what is going on in the market and I also stay informed about things that are going on in the sector."