Wanting to be the leader in the world

'Wanting to be the frontrunner in the world'. Actually, that is an unintended result of generations of farmers (sons) who are driven to make something of it. This driven attitude is what I am most proud of as a Dutch entrepreneur. And, I think that's also our best trademark.

On the other hand, it is also a property that we no longer necessarily need in the welfare state. In addition, the property apparently creates more friction with foreign parties who set goals other than food security. This is because the requirements for sustainability are almost nowhere as high as in our country. So in the Netherlands we are also at the forefront of this.

High demands
Society sets high standards and sets a lower economic and ecological price in return. In a project group of DLV Advies I want to find solutions for this, among other things by looking for innovations for our customers with which they can meet the wishes of society. An example of such an innovation that I think is cool is strip cultivation on GPS. Different crops are grown side by side.

After all, with the use of GPS you no longer necessarily have to think in large blocks, although you do have to take into account the working widths of the operations and the space you need to be able to harvest properly. This is a good principle to break through monocultures and to promote natural biodiversity, without making concessions to the return for the farmer. You may even get a better return, because crops become more resistant to diseases and fungi.

Or what do you think of Connecting Agri & Food's Smart Stable, which recently received a German innovation prize. The system measures emissions and animal health in real time. Based on this, it can make a manure scraper run extra, ventilate harder and/or set the temperature one degree lower. In another project called 'customized mineral concentrate', we extract the mineral ammonium sulphate from slurry, which is suitable for circular fertilizers or circular building materials.

Local manure fermentation
An example in which I am involved myself is the project on local manure fermentation (Jumpstart of Friesland Campina). There were some obstacles to overcome in the beginning, but thanks to the efforts of the entire team and the dairy farmers involved, a reliable technique is available that provides extra returns for the dairy farmer. In addition, it makes an enormous contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from dairy cattle.

The promise at the climate tables is to move towards 1.020 grams of CO₂ per kilo of milk, while the world average is about 2.400 grams per kilo. With a manure digester in the yard, you are on average only at 750 grams per kilo. That is why, in my view, the dairy farmer has an important right to continue to produce milk in the future.

Follow-up of phosphate rights
Perhaps the future dairy farmer will have more options in a successive system of phosphate rights? I dare not say that out loud, because who knows what the 4% loudest consumers will be calling for to further restrict livestock farming. But on the other hand, it will come at some point and those 4% critical consumers can also be seen as the 'early warning system'.

In any case, it must be done at such a pace, so as to go hand in hand with a good payment capacity of the farmer and without social suffering from forced quitters. Either way, we should embrace those signals and look for an innovative solution to them that will keep us 'frontrunner' in the world.

Boerenbusiness

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