Description

About the remover:

Gerben van Bennekom took over the dairy cattle farm from his father in 2017, who still works alongside his son every day. The farm is located in Renswoude, The Netherlands. At the start of his journey Gerben experimented with different things, such as pioneering with the Belgian Blue beef cattle and selling Wagya meat. However, this was not where his passions lay.

In 2018 Gerben registered at a soil course with colleagues and the municipality. After which he started a period of experimental fields, always with soil improvement as the goal. These experiments included non-inversion tillage, undersowing maize, bokashi, compost comparison with artificial fertilizer and bacteria in liquid manure. And these soil improvement experiments are still not finished, Gerben wishes to further experiment with compost tea and BlueN. Additionally, Gerben is also pioneering a second business branch: compost, worms and worm mulch. Compost materials are gathered regionally and formed to compost, worms and worm mulch. By his continuous experimenting Gerben can find what works best at his farm to improve the soil, in his own words: “to get the livestock under the soil to work as well”.

Another important component of Gerben’s farm are his herb-rich grasslands with grazing cows. Strip grazing is used, which means that every several hours Gerben gives the cows a new piece of grassland to graze on. After an intensive grazing period, the grassland gets a resting period for several weeks. With this grazing system, a natural balance in grasses and herbs has been created. The herb-rich grassland increases biodiversity, the feed quality, the health of cows and is more resilient to pressures.

Help Gerben and his family with further improving the health of their soil and their cattle!

Contact remover

Van Bennekom Renswoude

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