We let nature do its own thing here

FrieslandCampina’s farmers play a vital role in conserving and restoring biodiversity in the Netherlands. More than 25 percent¹ of all land in the Netherlands is managed by dairy farmers. Farmers are also referred to as the guardians of the landscape, but do we really realise their significance?

We lovingly support landscape elements

Each and every day, Jan, Ingrid and daughter Julia Poppe do their utmost to ensure a varied landscape, so that various birds and mammals can live under protection. The farming family explains: ‘Water, trees, pastures, windbreaks, frog ponds: you’ll find them all here. We lovingly maintain these landscape elements. Our business encompasses a lake spanning some 80,000 m2, where a sand quarry used to be. Around this we have put in 35,000 m2 of pasture and trees.’

Rich flora and fauna

‘We let nature do its own thing here. Some cows will graze here in the summer. The lake attracts vast numbers of birds. Typically for the Overijssel region, we also have lots of hedgerows, with 25,000 m2 of them on our land alone. The varied landscape ensures rich flora and fauna, bringing in species such as kingfishers, curlews, grass snakes, roe deer, badgers, foxes and storks.’

1. CBS Statline. (2021). Agriculture, crops, livestock and land use by region. Agrimatie. (2021). Increased amount of agricultural land on dairy farms in 2020.
2. Based on FrieslandCampina management records.