The farm will change radically
Less cattle and less milk
The current farm has the radiation of a modern land consolidation farm. The house and stables were rebuilt in 1993. The cow cubicle stable houses 130 dairy cows. The farm has 91,5 hectares of meadowland, 1,5 hectares of farm yard and 7 hectares of pure landscape elements. The meadows can be hundreds of years old, which makes them interesting from the point of view of cultural history. The type of soil is partly clay and partly peat. It is rich soil that is by nature very good for growing grass.
Completely self-sufficient
Nature oriented farming according to the ‘Farming for Nature' concept means that the farm receives no input of animal feed and fertilizers. This results in a number of very good basic conditions for the large number of wild plants and animals that normally grow on farmland. The current policy tries to bring back or maintain the natural elements (small-scale) with all sorts of management devices. ‘Farming for Nature' only has one clear rule at managerial level: no input. In this way the farmer keeps some space for manoeuvring and the optimum relation between the farm and nature will come into being (again).
Because of the fact that the farm of the Duijndam family has been managed organically since 1997, the supply of feed and fertilizers has already been reduced drastically. But it still is a big step to no input at all. The farm will extensify because of that. The livestock and dairy production are not the starting point on the nature oriented farm, but are the result of soil fertility and craftsmanship.
Corn in the Polder
The no-input prerequisite means that not only the roughage but also the nutritious corn has to be grown on the farm itself. On the part of the farm with clay ground this is technically possible. Corn is the most suitable crop. From the agricultural as well as the botanical point of view this is the most nourishing feed crop.
Autumn 2007 corn was sown for the first time and it was harvested in the summer of 2008. The choice fell on triticale a cross between rye and wheat. Triticale is a good cropper and is not susceptible to mycosis. Corn is of importance to the feeding of the cows. The cows need enough protein for good health and good production. Grass is a source of protein, but the protein calibre of the grass is relatively low because of the smaller amount of manure used and the postponed date of harvest. That is why, apart from corn, also alfalfa is grown on the farm. Alfalfa has a papilionaceous flower, full of protein. In this way the farm should become completely self-sufficient in protein. Common farms buy a lot of protein in the form of products like soya remains.
Less cattle, less manure
The production capacity of enough energy and protein-rich feed is a limitation to animal production. How can you produce milk and meat as economically as possible with the current feed supply? That is the main challenge for the Duijndam family. In search of the best way the production shifts from milk towards meat. The number of cows has remained the same over the past years, but the yearly dairy production has halved since 2003 to 310.000kg of milk. At the same time the meat sales have risen. More than 20% of the income comes from meat sales. They sell to restaurants, an organic supermarket and directly to customers on the farm.
Nature as source of revenue
Because of the shift towards the nature oriented business the farm will extend; the animal production drops considerably. Instead nature gets more space. The cattle farmer receives compensation for that. In the new structure nature (25%) and landscape (6%) have become important sources of income. Apart from the shift in sources of income, there are also shifts in the outline of the costs. Because feed is no longer purchased and there are fewer cows, some of the running costs are lower. On the other hand the costs of agricultural contractors will rise because almost the work on the farmland will become more labour intensive. Also the fixed costs for machinery and buildings will rise because of the storage and processing of compost, hay and corn. Due to the shift towards the Farming for Nature concept, not only the future of nature in the area improves, it also means better working income for the cattle farmer and the continuation of his farm.
The developments on the farm are monitored thoroughly. In ‘Stories of Biesland’ each year it is described what decisions were made regarding farm management, what changes were made and what the economic results are. Read more about this in ‘Verhalen van Biesland’ on the page Publicaties on this website (only in Dutch).