Agriculture students enjoy Netherlands study tour

The party of Level 3 students spent four days visiting farms, producers, suppliers, and enjoying sightseeing and enrichment opportunities.

Here's a diary of how the tour unfolded.

Day 1

Our first visit was to a small milking sheep farm at Lutjebroek. The farm produces ice cream from all the milk they collect and sells it both locally and on-site through a small shed by the canal.

The farmer explained that good breeding is paramount, as they only breed from sheep that are trouble-free. Traits they look for include ease of lambing, no lameness and a strong instinct in lambs to start drinking milk on their own within 30 minutes of birth. We all agreed that the ice cream was absolutely delicious.

Lunch was Dutch pancakes at Zaanse Schans, a picturesque area known for its canals and iconic windmills. Originally, these windmills were used to drain the land, although they’ve since been replaced by electric pumps. After enjoying our pancakes, we explored the area a bit before heading to our second visit of the day.

This was a well-run 150 cow dairy farm about 40 minutes to the south at Langerak. This farm takes six cuts of silage annually to feed their 150 cows. The cows are housed in cubicles bedded with a straw mix.

The farmer mentioned that, by law, they’re required to clean 40 km of ditches on their land every year. The surrounding area lies approximately two metres below sea level, making clean, free-flowing ditches crucial for drainage and flood prevention.

Day 2

A visit to an urban farm, ‘Het Lansingerland’, with Lely Innovations, including the vector feeding robot. The farm discussed the diversification elements of the farm including the farm shop, tea rooms and the childcare facilities on site along with the aims for the future.

Next stop was Tomato World. With a tour of the green house, which is a field and innovation lab for data driven automatic growing and robotics. Current research included the data collection via sensors on how bumblebees fly, forage and pollinate.

Day 3

Flowers, cows and goats, with some big tractors thrown into the mix.

An early morning start to get to the flower auction at Royal FloraHolland Aalsmeer. The auction shed is 440 acres in size and sells over 20 million flowers and 2 million plants daily from all over the world. 80% of the UK flowers are brought from here.

Next stop was to a beef cattle farm ‘Vlees van Gijs’ with his Blonde d’ Aquitaines herd and his contracting business. The farm discussed the beef herd and the challenges but also the benefits of farming close to Amsterdam.

Then off to our final farm of the day. A 600 dairy goat farm “De Molswaerd”, we all enjoyed an interesting farm walk talking about goats, land management and working with nature.

Day 4

A later start to the day with breakfast at the youth hostel in Utrecht. Then off to Amsterdam for a canal cruise before shopping and ice cream.

Next stop was a tour of Anne Frank’s house - which the students found to be a powerful and emotional experience and provided to be a remainder of the past that shouldn’t be forgotten. The day was ended with a traditional student meal - pizza.

We said our goodbyes to Mike the bus driver - who coped all week with 17 Agric students in his new minibus, which travelled to various farms over the week. Then finally to our fantastic Agricultural Dutch guide, Douwe Korting, who translated Dutch into English and talked about farming in the Netherlands and his experience in the industry. His expertise was invaluable to make the tour a success.

We would like to thank Bay Farm Tours for their expert assistance in facilitating the trip, and to Clarke and Pulman Ltd for their generous sponsorship.