Roughage tour Bert Swaps
'Feed beet gives great plus to cow health'
Organized for the third year in a row Boerenbusiness the Roughage Tour. Also this year we are following 10 dairy farmers throughout the Netherlands in their decisions regarding the extraction of roughage. In this series of company reports we introduce the entrepreneurs. In this fifth part: Bert Wissels from Hengelo (Gld).
In the Gelderse woods of Hengelo, the always optimistic Bert Wissels undertakes. His dairy farm is a lease company, where the Wissels family has been farming for quite some time. In addition to working on the farm, Wissels is also involved in the village and, if possible, kicks off a game of football on Sunday mornings. Wissels is participating in the for the second year this year Boerenbusiness Roughage tour. He likes the interaction with the other dairy farmers and it is instructive to see how other companies approach the cultivation of roughage such as grass and silage maize.
Wissels himself is interested in growing his own concentrates such as field beans and fodder beets. "For me, the objective is to milk as much as possible from roughage. Exchanging information about this with other growers is therefore an enrichment for my company." In addition to growing forage crops itself, Wissels also engages in outdoor grazing and stable feeding. "The autumn grass in particular provides a lot of added value for stable feeding."
Bert Wissels milks 120 cows with 35 calves and 35 heifers. In total he cultivates 66 hectares of land, of which 52 hectares are grass, 11 hectares maize and 2,5 hectares fodder beets. The production is 9.000 liters with 4,70% fat and 3,65% protein. The current choice of grass varieties is Havera 4, red clover for the meadow plots and Havera 4, white clover for the mowing plots. Last year the choice for maize was LG 31.205 and the Emmeleen. Wissels is charmed by the Stay Green effect of Lima Grain. The soil type is sand with transitions to river clay.
The entrepreneur describes himself as an experimental dairy farmer who likes to try things out. This applies to his cows, company and crops. For example, Wissels has had a feeding robot that has been adapted to his own taste since 2007, he has grown field beans himself and has a stationary beet chipper/cleaner for feeding the fodder beets. According to Wissels, his company must be in balance, whereby he can do most of the work himself. The feeding robot offered him a solution. "I have also thought about a milking robot, but then I no longer have any structure in my working day". With this, Wissels means that he likes to work on projects. Without the daily obligation of milking twice a day, that structure disappears completely. That goes on until the wee hours of the morning. "Being a farmer is my life," says Wissels.
Partly due to the technology company that the brother van Wissels had for many years, they were able to arrange many things at the company to their own taste. Most notable is the feeding robot that was imported from Finland in 2007 and subsequently built into the barn. "The feeding robot was made for Finnish dairy farming. The feed that is fed there is different from here in the Netherlands. As a result, we have adapted the robot to the Dutch feeds. We are actually pioneers in the feeding robot. There are companies that use the feeding robot technology. of today with us." The feeding robot allowed Wissels to enlarge the original 2+2 barn to a 3+2 barn, because the feeding path became narrower. At that time, the young stock still ran with a breeder. The barn was later extended so that the 140 dairy cows, dry cows and young stock could all walk around the farm.
Wissels has been a fan of feeding beets throughout his career as a dairy farmer. "Unfortunately, it was not attractive to feed it during the quota era. But once this was over, I immediately started again. It is not only the plus on the levels and the concentrates grown on our own land. Fodder beets also have a great plus for the health of the cows. The vet encouraged the idea of feeding beetroot because he too knows how healthy it is for the cows." The beet cutter works on the tractor's hydraulics. "A matter of three snakes and you can start," says Bert. He then throws the beets into a container in front of the barn. He then brings it into the mixing tub of the feeding robot that can be seen in the other photo.
In addition to fodder beets, Wissels has also grown field beans in the past year. The field beans are not yet being fed, but Wissels is hopeful that it will have a positive effect. In the coming year, Wissels will not grow them himself, but he will have a farmer near him do this.
Ronald Smit
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