The Rural Voice, 2019-02, Page 21cows. Van Der Schans joined the
business when he was 20. A
processing plant was built in 1990 to
create sour milk products such a
buttermilk and yogurt. The farm
grew to 440 milking cows.
“It can be successful to work with
brothers and it is also difficult so at
that time, in 1995, we split up,”
recalls Van Der Schans. His brother
kept the cows and Van Der Schans
dreamed of starting a big chicken, or
ostrich and deer farm. In the end, he
decided to start with goats. “At that
time, I have no farm and no place for
goats. I did not have a contract and
no money.”
In 1997, he started raising little
goats on rental properties. By 1999,
he was married and raising doelings
with hope he could earn a contract.
When that didn’t happen, he sold his
600 replacements and used the
profits to double the kids, purchasing
them from three days to two months
old. For a second time, the doelings
were ready to milk and he had no
contract. He sold them again. Finally,
in 1999, he built a barn and earned a
contract and started milking 250
goats. The bank had lots of say about
his profits so Van Der Schans
continued “the same trick” every
year. He bought lots of doelings –
about 2,000 – raising them for profit
while he continued to milk 250 goats.
Then began the years of
expansion. In 2001 he milked
500 goats, in 2002 he milked
1,000 goats and by 2013, he was
milking 3,000 goats while still
raising 1,000 doelings. Disaster
struck that year when the herd tested
positive for Caprine Arthritis
Encephalitis Virus (CAE).
“We don’t like this. It is terrible
for business. So we make a new plan
to sell all the goats and in 2005, we
buy new ones,” said Van Der Schans.
They restarted with 2,500 doelings
and 500 milking goats. “My wife
said it cost so much money you will
only do this one time.” Growth
continued and by 2015, the farm was
back up to 3,000 goats.
In 2014, they rented another farm
and were milking another 1,000
goats. Currently, they milk 4,000
goats and sell doelings, up to 5,000 a
year. The farm is now closed. New
genetics are brought in via artificial
insemination which is done to about
10 per cent of the herd.
From the start, the location of the
farm wasn’t great. The Van Der
Schans farm is located right outside
of a village. Holland is strict with
agriculture “permissions” and while
approvals were forthcoming at first,
by 2009, after a concern over “cow
fever”, the government started
refusing expansion requests.
Van Der Schans has been trying to
expand further and has even
purchased a few more farms to
establish new goat-raising facilities.
However, government approval has
been difficult to earn and he is
currently in a holding pattern, hoping
to use his main farm (where he does
have permission to increase to 6,000
milking goats) as leverage to
encourage the local government to
allow his expansion on other farms.
Van Der Schans said the goat
population in Holland is nearing 2.5
million. There are 350 goat farms
with an average size of 1,000 milking
goats. “It is no longer possible in
Holland to start a new goat farm,”
February 2019 17
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