Dairy farm Winters
The Winters dairy farm in Breedenbroek has about 110 dairy cows and 60 hectares of (clay) land. In recent years Gijs Winters has gradually renovated the 42-year-old barn. This includes the purchase of new cubicles, mattresses and grids in 2017. Then a new light-roof roof was fitted in 2018 and the remaining grids were replaced in 2019. In 2020, the 2×6 milking parlour was exchanged for a 2 GEA milking robot, and an extra-large straw bedded area was created for calving. In addition, a special area for the calves was created; “The Calf Lane”.
The old straw bedded pen measuring 3 x 8 metres next to the milking parlour was often full too quickly. As soon as the milking robots were ready for use, the old milking parlour was immediately demolished and added to the existing straw bedded area. The complete straw bedded pen is equipped with concrete straw grids and has a cellar. This straw bedded pen is now 10 x 8 metres in size. The youngest calves lie right next to the straw bedded pen. This way, the milking robot, the single pens and the straw bedded pen are close to each other. The calf pen is also fitted with concrete grids and is fully equipped with a cellar. The perforated grids have a 2% slope to the back to prevent contamination with manure, urine, water and milk.
Holsteins and Jerseys are milked on the farm. Winters has been interested in the Jersey breed for years. The Jerseys are kept by a family member in Denmark and after visiting the farm several times, a preference for Jerseys arose. After the announcement of the phosphate rights in the Netherlands, the company started to switch to Jerseys. Until now the heifers are bought from Denmark. The wish of Dairy Farm Winters is to eventually rear all young cattle themselves.
The calf lane at the farm includes 10 Topcalf Easy-clean hutches. These calf hutches were chosen “because they are large, easy-to-use plastic calf hutches”. The boxes were purchased via our joint partner QualityCalf. Hygiene is very important according to Gijs Winters. “Thanks to the easy Easy-clean system I can even easily clean the bottom of the grids. Mucking out goes fast, even the trainee is enthusiastic now”, Gijs Winters says with a wink.
