livestock

The Eemlandhoeve is home to French Blonde d'Aquitaine beef cattle.  Currently there are approximately forty cows with their calves and yearlings.  All of the cows are adopted by people who visit the farm.  A pureblood Blonde d'Aquitaine steer cares for reproduction.  Farmers Henk and Jan care for the livestock.  During the winter the animals are kept in the deep litter barn at the centre of the farm.  The feeding area has a grate floor to allow the manure to fall through.  In the rest of the barn, new layers of straw are continually spread as the previous layers are soiled to promote composting.  By the end of the winter this straw-bed is more than a meter high and the humus-manure that results is spread out over the bare ground in the spring.  Ten thousands of insects benefit from the rich soil this produces, providing in turn the birds and other animals of the field with food.  In this way the ecological cycle is completed.

In the spring the cows return to the open fields; always a wonderful sight for the farmer.  It is perhaps the most beautiful moment of the year:  dancing cows happily returning to the fresh green fields.