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Lower emissions with good roughage
In the south of the Flevopolder, Roel Assies runs a mixed dairy and arable farm. He grows grass, corn and other arable crops on 100 hectares of land in a 1-to-8 rotation. As a member of the Practical Farms Network, he is also working on reducing emissions from his dairy farm.
Roel Assies grew up in Drenthe on a mixed farm with dairy cattle and arable farming, and continued this in Flevoland. "A mixed farm offers many advantages in terms of manure sales, crop rotation and soil quality," Roel shares from experience. “Land prices are higher than ever, so we need to make the most of them.”
Summer stable feeding
The 85 dairy cows remain in the stable and receive plenty of fresh grass from spring to autumn. "I try to use the roughage as optimally as possible. The first cut usually goes completely into the silage, and after that summer stable feeding is the key. We always mow beautiful young grass and what does not grow fresh we mow every four weeks for silage." In the winter months, summer stable feeding is replaced by grass silage.
Spacious construction plan
The construction plan includes two years of grass, tulips, seed onions, sugar beets, Brussels sprouts, silage maize and potatoes. "After the potatoes, we sow grass again; the sieved soil you then have is perfect for sowing grass. We have been sowing for more than twenty years LG Havera 4, a quality mixture that thrives here. We also mix in some red clover for extra protein, drought tolerance and nitrogen fixation."
Measure and reduce emissions
Roel wants to optimize his company and prepare it for takeover by the next generation; his son would like to continue the company. That is why he is affiliated as a research company with the Network of Practice Companies. "The emissions of ammonia and methane in the stable are continuously measured and we try to reduce them. Feeding measures have a great effect: good quality and utilization of your roughage reduces methane emissions. With ammonia we focus on the crude protein content in the ration , where we aim for a total of 150 grams of crude protein in the ration."
Continue to develop
In the coming years, Roel's son will graduate and work partly at the company. "We are also looking at automatic milking and will always continue to work on optimization and improvement, both in the crops and in the stable." Cultivation specialist Robert ter Maat helps LG to achieve maximum returns from roughage cultivation.
Dutch dairy farmers are faced with a huge amount of work. Domestic feed is your most important means of protecting your company against external uncertainties and changes and ensuring your returns. Producing milk from feed from our own country is and remains the raison d'être and revenue model of the Dutch dairy farmer.
As a breeding company, LG has been committed to developing varieties and mixtures that excel in kVEM/ha for decades. Due to the combination of high yield potential, top nutritional quality and high digestibility, LG varieties top all official variety lists in this area. We help farmers maximize the value of our breed genetics through personal advice, digital knowledge sharing and digital tools.
