Column: Stopping our dairy cows | Vee-en-Gewas.nl

Dear family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, neighbors and acquaintances…

Last weekend (March 23/24, ed.) we were startled by an accident in the young cattle stable, the manure slats fell over a length of 20 meters into the manure pit. With the help of the fire brigade, contractor, veterinarian and colleagues, this was resolved very smoothly and quickly, while preserving all the animals. After the arrival of various experts, this all seems to be resolved quite well.

For us it has been another moment of reflection, and we have considered whether this road ahead of us can still be walked with pleasure and with the right energy. We said that we find the bumps and sacrifices in terms of work and uncertainty of what may yet come to be too great. After all, we had already started building the new milking parlour.

We have decided to stop having our dairy cows and to look in peace (when the cows are gone) at what could be a different use for our farm. This choice seems to have come out of the blue, but has been on our kitchen table several times in recent years. This also means that we see and feel this as a well-considered choice and opt for more happiness and pleasure for the coming working years that still lie ahead of us.

Of course we want to share our story, but we also ask for some peace and quiet so that we can take the right steps together with our family in the near future.

Where doors close, new doors open again. We look positively to the future. Someone changes jobs often.

Greeting,

Rogier and Heleen

After an exciting week, this was the WhatsApp message we sent on Good Friday to a large group of people around us. On Thursday, March 28, we decided to stop milking cows and continue with our farm in a different way. On Friday morning we first informed our business partners by telephone and around noon we shared the above app message.

I often spoke in this column about making choices and now we have made a drastic choice. I can say a lot about why exactly, but this is the main point; happiness, fun and health. And that is exactly what we no longer envisioned after the accident involving the collapse of the slats in the young cattle stable. We enthusiastically started building the milking parlor at the front and everything seems to be falling together at the back of our company.

Milk quota

Especially in the last 8 years, after the abolition of the milk quota, we have been reflecting on the year we are closing and looking at the year ahead. Did we have fun? What went well? What can be done better? What will be exciting in the new year? What are we focusing on this year? What investments are we going to make? What about work-life balance? What do we expect from each other? What choices do we have to make?

The various scenarios for doing something different with the farm have also been on the kitchen table with some regularity. We can always talk about this openly with each other, no matter how extreme, uncertain and deep our feelings are. Often we go back to work with a certain scenario and usually after a few days we feel whether it is the right path or not. This way we keep each other sharp, but we also remain well connected as an entrepreneurial couple.

Accident

We usually don’t let the outside world be part of these scenarios. Only our loved ones recognize a few markers; loss of milk quota, drought and whether or not to build a new milking parlour. And now the accident in the young cattle stable, which has made us decide to organize the farm differently.

We realize that it has caused a great shock to many, and perhaps now to you as a reader. A choice that was not expected, especially since construction on the milking parlor has already started. It is heart-warming to receive all the responses. The full support and understanding of both our families is very valuable to us.

New branch

It is Easter Sunday when I write this column, we have a few busy and full weeks ahead of us and we are going to make an action plan on how we are going to stop. This morning the first new plans flew carefully across the kitchen table, first let’s take some time to build. I suspect that the cows could be gone very quickly. Then step by step towards a new design of our farm. Historically, we are doing exactly what our generations have done before, moving from ‘being a farmer’ to a new branch. From chickens, to pigs, to cows, to…

Greeting,

Heleen

Oh yes, we understand that ‘one man’s death is another man’s bread’. We are blessed with a nice and large network, we do not need a (well-intentioned) offer of services at the moment. (The first traders were already on our property on Easter Saturday)

Heleen Lansink-Marissen

Heleen Lansink-Marissen writes a monthly column for the Vee & Gewas website. Together with her husband Rogier, she has a dairy farm in St. Isidorushoeve, a village in the municipality of Haaksbergen (OV). Lansink-Marissen sees herself as an independent, connecting farmer who likes to engage in dialogue about various topics. She does this through a vlog, blog and also lectures and tours at her company, but even further afield. She can also be followed on Twitter: @HeleenLansink.