‘Looking at a living painting’

Not a day goes by without Ger taking a walk around Noordermaatweg in Heemskerk, past the farm of sisters Linda and Anita de Ruyter. Every day the landscape is different. ‘It's like a living painting. Sometimes you see the bull staring at you, other times flocks of hares run between the lapwings. You see a diversity of birds, amphibians and other animals here, impressive! This is a place where nature comes alive and I enjoy that immensely every day.’

‘This farmland road towards the dunes reminds me of my childhood. Back then, I often saw small farms with a pair of cows. During my daily round trip, just like then, I enjoy the smells and colours of the herbs in the fields, the cows and lambs, the croaking of frogs, and did you see that redshank flying away there? I love Linda and Anita's passion for their farm and nature management’.

‘I have known Linda and Anita for years. When my children were little, we were allowed to come and see the newborn lambs,’ Ger explains. ‘Their dairy farm is in the middle of a nature reserve, between the forests and dunes.’ ‘Right,’ says Linda. ‘We are here on nature land and let our farming blend with the environment as much as possible. We want to create a balanced environment where both our livestock and nature are doing well. Therefore, we work with respect for all the animals and plants in our area.’

‘Our property has about 65 hectares of nature land,’ says Anita. ‘We carefully select the type of cows we breed so that they thrive in this natural environment. We usually start mowing only from mid-June, mid-July, to protect birds' nesting places. Our cows graze on different types of flowery hay meadows. This is full of herbs that in turn provide varied nutrition.’

The area around the farm is large in proportion to the herd of 70 cows. They have plenty of space to roam around. Anita: ‘Last year, we had as many as 48 black-tailed godwit breeding pairs.’ ‘There are many species of birds here anyway, Linda adds. ‘Like the garganey, which is a duck species, snipe and yellow wagtails. We hope to see another ruff nesting, a rare meadow bird.’

‘You have many ponds here with natural banks,’ Anita says. ‘Speaking of water, we do puddle-swamp. A technique where we flood parts of the meadow, especially during the breeding season. This creates wet and dry areas, which is very nice for the birds. We try to let young cattle walk in those wet and dry meadows as much as possible during the breeding season. Then the young cows and the birds get used to each other and the nests are not disturbed.’

Linda and Anita can also count on outside help. Linda: ‘We have long enjoyed working with PWN. This is the drinking water company for this region and they do a lot of nature management. We also do a lot together with Noord-Hollands Landschap, a nature management organisation. They are fully behind us and help with our way of farming. We find that very valuable.’

What about energy for the farm? Anita: ‘We are trying to become more and more self-sufficient and looking for the best ways to do that. We already get 85% of protein from cow feed from our own land. We use the farmyard manure again to improve the soil. And our tractors run on HVO 100, a clean biofuel. And we might also switch to solar energy soon.’

‘Our father, who founded this farm, instilled in us a love of nature,’ says Linda. ‘He is no longer here now, but he made our way of farming possible and we are grateful to him for that. We are proud to be successful with that. That a farm can take measures for nature conservation is something we gladly share. That's why we are also enthusiastic ‘Ambassadors of the Countryside’ for FrieslandCampina. We like to engage with everyone, from tourists and fellow farmers to hikers.’ Anita: ‘Everyone who passes by smiles or waves, they really like what we do here. Ger is living proof of that!’