Velden farmer remains positive despite nitrogen crisis

Dairy farmer Mark van Lipzig from Velden remains positive about his future and that of his farm. Even now that farmers are taking to the streets en masse to protest against the government's nitrogen policy.

Van Lipzig is the third generation in dairy farming, together with his partner Ineke Haast he runs a farm with 350 dairy cows. What the future looks like for him and his children is unclear. 'We're always going to try to get the best out of it, for us and our children,' says Van Lipzig. 'We keep innovating, for example we try to keep the milk chain short and we are going to try to convert manure into green energy,' says the farmer from Velden.

47 percent less nitrogen

Yet the nitrogen issue also keeps Van Lipzig busy. The government's plans came as a shock to us. We saw on the government map that we are in an area where some 47 percent of nitrogen must be reduced. For our farm that would mean that we would have to get rid of almost half of the cows. That would be unfeasible, we are not going to make it financially.'

Demonstrate

Reason enough to take action, thinks the dairy farmer from Velden. Nevertheless, Van Lipzig has decided not to join the demonstration in The Hague. I am very angry inside, I think about it a lot. But I want to work positively on the future of my company, because we are working on very nice things,' says Van Lipzig.

Children

The Velden family is confident that the fourth generation of Van Lipzig can also become farmers. 'I definitely see a future for our children on the farm', says farmer's wife Ineke Haast. 'Only then they will have to be innovative enough and be flexible enough to adapt to the future. They can do what they want to do. But maybe not the way we do it now in this day and age. It might have to be with multiple side branches and smaller scale than we do it now'.

Source: Omroep Venlo