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XtraBlatt Issue 01-2018

  • Text
  • Machinery
  • Krone
  • Forage
  • Silage
  • Maize
  • Menschen
  • Farmers
  • Contractor
  • Agricultural
  • Dairy

MENSCHEN TITLE RUBRIK

MENSCHEN TITLE RUBRIK THEME Farmer Geert Wouters, Alphen (NL) CARTING QUALITY Driving much further south in the Netherlands when visiting Geert Wouters’ farm would be difficult. Just 1 km more and you’d be at the Belgian border. This dairyman runs 120 cows – and puts a lot of value on production of first class forage. 10

FROM THE FIELD With his father, Geert Wouters manages a dairy farm in the deep south of the Netherlands. Venlo marks the border crossing into the Netherlands. Then we steer due west until Eindhoven, from where it’s only around 25 km to Alphen. The normally densely populated Netherlands has rather fewer settlements in this region. Single steadings nestle alone between expansive grasslands. One of these farms belongs to Geert Wouters, who welcomes us warmly at the farmhouse door, immediately inviting us to “koffie en koekjes” in the kitchen. HIGH INTENSITY “We have less farmland area compared with our colleagues in other European countries. This encourages us to manage what we have as optimally as possible and harvest as much as we can from every hectare”, emphasises the farmer right at the beginning of our discussion. He does pretty well in this direction himself with a current herd average yield of 10,500 l milk, a large proportion of which comes from forage. Intensive grassland husbandry is standard procedure for Dutch farmers. “Here, we have to feed 120 milkers and 100 followers with grass silage from 30 ha with another 9 ha down to forage maize, fodder beet on 3.5 ha and 4 ha of hemp, all of which is chopped and rolled into the clamps. The latter components are aimed at increasing structure in our feed rations. More farmland area is simply not available for us.” Bought-in is only the required concentrate feed – soya and rapeseed meal – and around 25 t of straw each year for feeding and bedding. The region’s soil is sandy with annual precipitation averaging 850 mm although in high summer things can get very dry and irrigation has to be turned on for some of the grassland. Geert Wouters says there’s growing economic pressure from potato growers in the area. “They are increasingly competitors for land. While we have the advantage of owning our land, it now sells for 75,000 Euro/ha here with the price inflated by demand from potato growers.” So far, there’s no restriction to ploughing-up pastureland for arable output here. But this farmer reckons on future limitations, as in neighbouring Germany. “I find that this would be good. In areas where the potato sector moves on, it leaves behind depleted soils in real need of reconditioning.” MORE THAN SLURRY 42 ha of the farm’s land is in a block around the steading with the rest not more than 2 km away. This structure naturally saves money, the distances between fields being quite short: preferential in spring, for instance, for slurry distribution per contractor umbilical system. “In the Netherlands we can start bringing out slurry from February 15 and this almost always works with the umbilical system because it’s less dependent on weather. The soil is hardly under any pressure, the main vehicle in the system being fitted with Terra tyres. As a rule, we apply 30 m3 slurry/ha on our grassland.” There then follows a 38% N and 19% S mineral fertiliser dressing with added nitrification inhibitor. Two thirds of this dressing goes on mid-March, the rest in the beginning of April. Depending on plant growth and slurry silo levels, another dung application 11