Some farmers are happy with a small farm, and some farmers want a bigger farm to be happy, but all the farmers will have much milk, great cows and pleasure in their work on the farm. We have one of the biggest farms in the Beemster cooperative, about 130 cows. The calves are born year round on the farm. They are going away from their mother to a hutch (with straw and a heat lamp) because we don’t want any viruses from the cow to spread to the calves. After a week the bulls are going to a trader, he takes them to the market. The females stay on the farm and are going in a group together.

We don’t milk the cows by hand, but we have an automatic milking machine. Most people are surprised to learn that this automatic milking is nicer for the cows since they can come to be emptied whenever she feels she is ready, 24 hours a day. The milk truck then comes and picks up the milk to bring to the Beemster dairy where the cheese is created. Even without milking with hand, there is enough work to do! We almost have 80 sheep’s with 162 lambs, a horse, 2 goats with 4 little goats, 7 rabbits, and some cats.

Often I help out on the farm, our farm is a typical Dutch family farm. Everybody helps if nessecary. My mother is 44 years old, she feeding the sheep and give the lambs some milk, helps with the cows and makes a dinner for the family.

My father is 47 years old, he´s feeding the cows, give the calves milk, give some straw for a clean bed of the animals (we are very careful with keeping things clean and nice for the animals, but I will explain more detail about that later). My brother is 20 years old, he´s sometimes feeds the cows with the feed truck and does chores with the tractor. My sisters are 16 and 14, they also help out every now and then. (feeding the rabbits, the horse, the goats and the chickens.) I do always help where I can, so I can get some experience.