Hoeve De Koeberg: kind to the environment

In Sint Geertruid, South Limburg, René Keulen and Claudia van der Tuijn run organic dairy farm and vacation destination Hoeve De Koeberg. "A sustainable, no-nonsense farm with the simplicity of former farm life, complemented with a touch of luxury of today," say the owners. A place where a better environment is being worked on in a lot of ways.

Conversion

In 1999, the dairy farm was converted to organic, then certified in 2000. The transition was made from a regional cooperation: ''That year the government came up with an incentive scheme for organic farming. We then found out that there were five entrepreneurs in South Limburg who had the same idea," says René. "We did want to switch to organic, but for one farmer they wouldn't come south to collect the milk. By taking on this with the five of us, it was profitable for Campina."

Feed

The farmer grows the organic feed for the cows himself, but that is not always enough. Cologne explains: "As an organic farmer you try to grow as much feed as possible on your own land to complete the cycle. But if there is a shortage of feed, as we have experienced in recent years because of drought, you have to buy organic feed elsewhere. That is not so easy and is a significantly higher cost than if we had chosen conventional feed."

Environmentally friendly

In addition to organic farming, many other environmentally friendly measures are taken at De Koeberg. On the cowshed are solar panels, the heating of the house and for example the water is electric. Gas is no longer used. The entrepreneurs also participate in various nature-promoting projects such as corncob friendly field management, sowing herb-rich field edges and the preservation of hawthorn hedges, (pollard) willows and standard orchards. There are also bee hives on the property and the vacation cottages in the monumental farmhouse were developed with the environment in mind.

Read the full interview with René Keulen of Hoeve De Koeberg on Biological Limburg. You can find more examples of Limburg farmers committed to sustainable agriculture in our background article on circular agriculture. You can find other Limburg farmers who focus on extra activities besides farming in this article.