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Cycle of soil, feed and cow
With no fewer than three potential successors, Rinus and Jannie van der Zijl focused on growth years ago. The company had to become big enough to split, so that the sons could go their own way. Growth has been achieved, although the phasing out of derogation and wait-and-see policy now cause uncertainty.
Rinus has learned the growth strategy from home. "At home in Haskehorne, we had four successors. By growing rapidly, our parents ensured that we could all become farmers. Now three of our four boys have the ambition to continue the business and hopefully that will work out again."
Soil quality
Since its start in 2001, the company has grown from one hundred to four hundred dairy cows. The area grew from 60 to 185 hectares, partly owned. Good care for the soil is very important to Rinus. "Your soil quality is decisive for the yield and quality of your roughage. In the cycle of soil, roughage and cow, all those links deserve care and attention. We have been sowing early-maturing LG maize varieties, which we can harvest when sown when ripe without structural damage. You have to be very careful with the soil structure."
Peas-barley
Crop rotation is also an important measure to maintain soil quality. "In addition to grass and maize, we grow the mixed crop of pea and summer barley. We harvest it as a GPS and fill it with the grass. It is an easy cultivation that usually succeeds well. After the harvest in July you have the opportunity to level the land and replant it. to sow grass on time. And it now yields many points in the CAP."
Passion for grazing
During the expansion of the number of dairy cows, grazing has never been discussed. "That's a passion, for me it's just part of it. There is plenty of grassland around the farm, and I'm an easy pasture person, so it doesn't require that much work." Rinus has been sowing Havera grass mixtures, mainly, for over twenty years Havera 4. "That produces a lot of tasty grass and also holds up very well with the permanent grazing that we use."
Rinus also sees agricultural nature management as a natural part of the dairy farm. "We did meadow bird management for years, until unfortunately that was no longer possible due to predation. Now it is things like colorful meadow edges, nature-friendly banks and hedgerows that we manage within ANLb packages."
Derogation
It is not yet certain how the reduction of the derogation will be handled on the farm. "We are looking at various scenarios, such as expansion with an arable farm or manure processing such as nitrogen cracking or thickening. We hope that politicians will provide more room for solutions, but at the moment it is very difficult to manage. It is also crazy that we have good manure where the soil "We have to remove the screams and then buy fertilizer."
