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Economics of Factory Farming
Dutch Farmers Leaving the Netherlands
| Why Are Dutch Farmers Leaving the
Netherlands to Establish Intensive Livestock Operations in Indiana?
This question was posed to BioMuncie in response to an article, entitled Huge dairies arrive in state, published Oct. 6th in both the IndyStar and StarPress. First by way of background, note that the Netherlands is a small low-lying country. The European portion of the Netherlands (excluding the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba) has a total area of 41,526 sq. km (16,033 sq. mil), of which 33,939 sq. km (13,104 sq. mil) is land surface. About half of the country's land mass lies below sea level (The Netherlands). The Dutch are of course famous for their hydraulic engineering and reclamation of land. Were it not for dikes and the regular pumping of excess water much of the land would be flooded. (See Holland Fact Sheet for more information on natural environment.) In Europe, farming practices have been influenced most strongly by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU), which was adopted in the early 60s (WFAFW, CAP). The policy was designed to help develop and support agriculture across Europe. Unfortunately some of the incentives and protections introduced paved the way for the development of intensive livestock operations and industrial agricultural practices. Intensive pig and poultry farming developed in the Netherlands, during the 1960s. Despite early warnings from environmentalists, these operations continued to expand producing masses of manure. In 1985, a surplus of 16 million metric tons was reported. Excess manure was being applied to lands across the country. Phosphates and nitrates were saturating soils and entering waterways. (Wasnick and Benson, 1999, Animal Agriculture and The Environment: Experiences from Northern Europe) Eutrophication (the process by which a body of water becomes enriched in dissolved nutrients that cause the depletion of dissolved oxygen and stimulation of algal growth) of waterways occurred where water movement was poor. Neighboring countries complained of acid rain resulting from ammonia deposition. In 1984, the the Intensive Livestock Farms (Interim) Act that included an Interim Law for Restriction of Pig and Poultry Farms was enacted. Although it was supposed to restrict expansion of existing livestock farms in certain regions, expansion of operations continued. In 1987 the government again attempted to try and manage the growing problem of industrial agriculture with a three phased plan - the National Environmental Policy Plan. During phase one (1987-1990), the Manure Law and the Soil Protection Act set limits on the number of animals per farm. During the second phase (1991-1994), measures were imposed to ensure a gradual reduction in application rates as well as a reduction in such things as ammonia emissions from cattle operations. It was hoped that production and utilization of manure would achieve a balance during the third phase (1995-2000). These hopes were not fully realized as a powerful industry lobby thwarted good intentions. For instance the Pig Farming Restructuring Act, which aimed at reducing herd size and manure generation by 2000, was subject to lengthy litigation between the Dutch government and the Dutch union of pig farmers and the intended 25% reductions never occurred. Thus in 1998 projections indicated that the Netherlands would have the highest pig density per area of workable farm land in Europe.
During 1997 and 1998, hundreds of farms in the northern provinces were depopulated by an outbreak of Classical Swine Fever (CSF, Hog Cholera). "When the CSF outbreak was over, in total 8,111,118 pigs were killed on infected farms, and herds were depopulated and blocked. One thousand two-hundred eighty-six herds were depopulated." (Merks, 2001, Practical Experience with Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease see also Brabant Story). Tight confinement of animals resulted in rapid spread of disease and horrific losses. This event did not dissuade the growth of high density operations. While the government of the Netherlands was trying to deal with these problems, the European Commission (EC) recognized that changes were needed in the Common Agricultural Plan to reduce overproduction and address the issue of nitrates in drinking water. In 1991 the EC passed the Nitrate Directive. The Nitrate Directive required that EU countries monitor their waterways for nitrates and establish codes of practice to reduce nitrate pollution. "While member countries had the freedom to develop country-specific action plans for identified vulnerable areas, the plans had to include a limit of 170 kg N/ha (ie: max 2 LU/ha) on manure use. Note that 210 kg N/ha was allowable for the first 4 years of the program to help phase in this requirement." (Ontario Ministry of Ag and Food, 2003, A Review of Selected Jurisdictions and Their Approach to Regulating Intensive Farming Operations ). Although realizing some reductions in industrial agricultural pollution during the 1990s, the Netherlands did not achieve their goal of balanced production and utilization of manure. Soils remained heavily saturated with nitrates and phosphates, particularly in the eastern and northern part of the country (Environmental Balance MAP). Thus in 1998, in an effort to fine tune the National Environmental Policy, parliament enacted the Minerals Accounting System (MINAS), under which factory farms of a certain size had to declare their mineral nutrient losses. In March 2000, the EU issued a directorate stating, "The amount of livestock manure that is allowed to be applied to the land according to the Dutch legislation is not directly limited ...[and] The use of fertilizers in the Netherlands remains twice the average Northern Europe level, despite the excess of nitrogen available from livestock manure." (Press Release March 2000). The Dutch government responded by making MINAS compulsory for all farms in 2001 and by tightening manure and fertilizer policy to ensure compliance with the EU Nitrates Directive. Now livestock farmers can not apply manure in autumn and winter or put manure on frozen ground. Manure must be injected into the soil and farms must meet strict requirements for ammonia emissions. The dairy industry was further restricted by the establishment of milk quotas to prevent over production. In addition a milk quality system became mandatory in 2003. "The program, “Chain Quality Milk” or KKM (the Dutch acronym) offers six compliance modules including: animal drug use, feed and water, milking and milk storage, animal health and welfare, cleaning and disinfecting and environmental waste. Nearly every Dutch dairy farm has become KKM certified in anticipation of the April deadline," (Feb. 2003, A Snapshot of the Dutch Dairy Industry, Cheese Reporter). Given the tightening of regulations, the restrictions on growth, many Dutch farmers looked outside of the Netherlands for opportunities. (March 2003, Dutch family sees Ohio as land of opportunity, Dayton Daily News). "In recent years, thousands of dairy farms have ceased production and as many as one farm family per day has sold out to move dairy or cash crop operations to Denmark, Germany, Poland, Canada and the United States," (Feb. 2003, A Snapshot of the Dutch Dairy Industry, Cheese Reporter). Enter a company like Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development. Vreba-Hoff helps farmers relocate from Europe to the United States. "For a fee, Vreba-Hoff scouts the land, builds the barns, buys the cows and equipment, lines up grain farmers to supply feed and land to spread manure, and provides technical advice. It also helps families navigate immigration, get Social Security numbers and deal with other relocation issues. It has moved more than dozens of farmers, the vast majority of them from the Netherlands, to Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. All have established new operations with more than 600 cows." (Ben Sutherly, Mike Wagner and Laura A. Bischoff, Dec. 6, 2002, Lucrative Megafarm Market Lures Europeans Dayton Daily News) Interestingly most of the farmers emigrating are leaving farms of around 50 head. According to the Illinois Farm Bureau, "The Netherlands have 33,000 dairy farmers. There are 11 dominant dairies. Two of them produce 80% of the total milk. The average dairy farm is 50-60 cows. A large farm would have 150 cows." (April 2003 Dutch Dairies Cow Tow to Social Will). Production limits keep farm size relatively small. But larger operations are more lucrative. Hence Vreba-Hoff has opened over thirty large dairies in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. Most are in Ohio. "Virtually all the Ohio dairies are built to house just under 700 cows. The state requires farms with 700 milk cows to get a permit, which opens them to inspections and forces operators to have a written plan for handling manure. . . . We are aware that factory farm problems are not restricted to just the Dutch dairies," wrote Susan Studer-King, outreach coordinator for the council. But she said the Vreba-Hoff dairies warrant extra scrutiny because they were constructed "to circumvent state regulations." (Lucrative megafarm market lures Europeans) The Dayton Daily News printed a five part series on The Supersizing of Livestock Farms. As part of this study, they surveyed state regulations regarding intensive feeding operations (megafarms). Like Ohio, Indiana has few regulations to inhibit megafarm operators. "Under Indiana's CAFO regulation program, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) was to issue permits to CAFOs that conformed to the terms of Indiana's Confined Feeding Control Act, Ind. Code 13-18-10 - 13-18-10-6. Indiana's Confined Feeding Control Act defines a confined feeding operation as any operation with confined feeding of more than 300 cattle, 600 swine or sheep, or 30,000 fowl, or any operation with a history of pollution problems. Before 2001, however, Indiana did not require any confined feeding operations, including federally-defined CAFOs, to apply for or to obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Prior to 1999, IDEM did not inspect or pursue an enforcement action against any CAFO in Indiana. (April 2003, Reporter, State's NPDES/CAFO Program Must Comply With Clean Water Act, National AgLaw). The above quote comes from a recent court case in which IDEM was ordered "to bring its program into compliance with the Clean Water Act and within federal regulations." A lax approach to megafarms has made Indiana a choice spot. Once the state begins to seriously regulate the industry, Indiana may not be as inviting to CAFO operators. The environmental costs of intensive feeding operations in the Netherlands have been great. Hopefully, Indiana can avoid that fate. |
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Dutch farmers are moving to Indiana to escape problems at home
By Seth Slabaugh, Muncie StarPress, Feb. 29, 2004
seths@thestarpress.com
LEWISVILLE - "Watch it," Nico Niessen warns a reporter and a photographer from The Star Press. "It's slippery."
Visitors to his dairy barn are normally taken into the milk parlor, office and feed alleys, where the floors are dry and clean.
But this particular tour also goes into the pens, lanes and ramps where the cows travel when they're not being milked or resting in their sandy stalls. Manure from 1,200 cows covers the concrete floors in those areas.
Fortunately, Niessen hands out plastic, throw-away boots to his unprepared guests. That protects their shoes and protects his cows from anything harmful the shoes might transport into the barn.
Cable-operated automatic floor scrapers slowly push squishy cow dung into drain trenches that flow into a 5-million-gallon storage lagoon outdoors.
"This is the swimming pool," Niessen jokes.
His cows discharge enough manure in a year to fill 750 above-ground swimming pools, each 52 inches deep and 24 feet around.
Niessen is one of dozens of European dairy farmers - mostly Dutch - who have moved to Indiana, Michigan and Ohio since the late 1990s, in part because there is an excess of manure in The Netherlands.
Together, the immigrants have started 11 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Indiana housing 12,625 dairy cows.
That represents more than eight percent of Indiana's dairy cow population.
Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development, Wauseon, Ohio, is steering the European farmers to the three states.
The company has developed three dozen dairy CAFOs for the newcomers and has at least 10 more in various stages of development. One of them is Dutch farmer Tony Goltstein's proposed Union-Go Dairy in Randolph County.
How many more will come?
"I think we're in the middle of it at this point," said Vreba-Hoff's Cecilia Conway, a U.S. citizen whose parents came to America from The Netherlands in 1960. "There's still a lot of interest."
The public is making a stink over the new Dutch dairies in all three states because of their size, odors, manure spills, construction violations and other concerns.
After neighbors complained that Niessen's dairy stunk up their laundry when hung out to dry, the Henry County Planning Commission denied his petition to expand his herd from 1,200 to 1,900. Niessen hired a lawyer who sued the planning commission and the neighbors. The case is pending.
An organization called Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Randolph County formed last year to stop what it calls Goltstein's proposed "factory farm," which would house 1,650 cows. The future of that dairy remains up in the air.
The average dairy farm in Indiana has about 75 cows. The dairies being developed in Indiana by Vreba-Hoff range from 675 cows to Niessen's proposed 1,900 cows.
Why they're coming
The Netherlands is one of the smallest, most densely populated countries in the world, both in terms of humans and livestock.
Land prices there are skyrocketing.
The nation is about half the size of Indiana but has more than twice as many people as the Hoosier state.
There are 30,000 dairy farms in The Netherlands - one of the world's largest exporters of dairy products - and a total dairy herd of 1.5 million. Indiana has 150,000 milk cows on 2,600 farms.
The overabundance of manure in The Netherlands is a major environmental problem that the government is serious about tackling, according to "Manure and the Environment," a report published in 2001 by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries.
The manure surplus causes explosive growth of plants and algae in surface waters, deterioration of ground water, and rapid growth of grass in nature areas at the expense of wild plants. Excessive growth of algae lowers dissolved oxygen in lakes and streams, reducing their ability to support fish and other aquatic life.
As a result, the Dutch government has imposed severe restrictions on livestock population expansion.
And there is a ceiling on production of manure. Farmers whose cows produce too much manure might have to reduce their livestock numbers.
In addition, a milk quota system has been in effect in the European Community since 1984. A dairy farmer's quota stipulates how much milk he can sell in a year. If the farmer sells more than his allocated share, he might have to pay a levy on the excess milk he sold.
That's why farmers like Niessen and Goltstein are moving to America.
"Everything is so crowded in The Netherlands," said Ivonne Goltstein, Tony's wife. "One of the reasons we came here was to give our [three] kids a future."
The Goltsteins moved from The Netherlands to Germany, where they milked 90 cows, before moving to Randolph County last year.
Niessen, 38, and his wife Millie, the parents of four children, moved from The Netherlands to Belgium, where they milked 100 cows before moving to Henry County several years ago.
"The reason we left The Netherlands or Belgium was not because of too much manure," Niessen said. "It was because of that so-called family farm, where the mom and dad are almost always in the barn. The result is no children want to continue the dairy farm. They see how hard mom and dad have to work. Exactly the same is going on over here in the states. That's the reason those small dairy farms are starving."
Cows are 'happy'
Niessen's cows receive hormone shots to increase milk production, a practice that is prohibited in The Netherlands.
He milks his cows three times a day here, compared to milking only twice a day when he was in Europe.
Most cows in The Netherlands are pastured from April to October.
Here, Niessen confines his 1,200 cows to the barn at all times.
That practice is criticized by groups like the Sierra Club and the Humane Society of the United States. They say artificial conditions, drugs, hormones, other chemicals, and exhaustive production demands lead to boredom, stress, aggression, physical disorders, disease, worn-out animals and death.
"They think keeping the cows inside we are not treating them that well," Niessen said. "I invite them to look at our cows. In the summertime it's a lot nicer in the barn out of the sun than laying in the pasture."
Niessen's cows are confined to a "free-stall" barn, meaning the cows are free to roam from stall to stall by way of "scrape alleys."
Three times a day, at eight-hour intervals, the cows are herded in groups of 200 to the milk parlor.
When they aren't being milked, they spend their time in the "free-stall" pens. Each pen contains stalls filled not with straw but with a bed of sand. The cows gradually kick the sand into the "scrape alleys," where it mixes with manure and is pushed into the drain trenches. Fresh sand is added weekly. The stalls look like large bicycle racks.
"During the day, the cows lay down [in the sand], they can eat, they can walk free, whatever they want," Niessen said. "They can move out of the stalls but not out of the pen. See how they lay? They are chewing their cud."
The sand is more comfortable than straw, Niessen said. It keeps the cows cooler in the summer, doesn't attract as many flies, and prevents bacterial growth.
The barn also contains fans and sprinklers to keep the cows cool in the summer.
"If a cow is happy, she's going to milk more for us," Niessen said. "If you don't treat them right, they don't produce."
Niessen's cows fill a 6,000-gallon tanker truck full of milk destined for the Cincinnati area every 16 hours.
The milk parlor has 48 stalls staffed by eight Mexican immigrants.
Their job includes wiping sand and manure off the teats and applying iodine disinfectant to them before and after the cows are hooked to the milking machines.
"Part of the reason we've got Hispanic labor, you know how hard it is to find people to work seven days a week, day and night?" Niessen asked. "Those guys, they milk a little bit over five times a week, and that day they milk is about 12-hour shifts or 11-hour shifts."
Manure not always injected
Niessen has ample crop land here on which to apply manure: more than 2,000 acres. He owns 500 acres himself, and other farmers pay part of Niessen's cost of spreading the valuable fertilizer on their land.
"IDEM really keeps a close eye on us," Niessen said. "We have to have a manure management plan. We have to have the acreage to spread our manure on or otherwise they don't give us a permit [to operate]. Manure has a value as fertilizer. It costs a lot of money to spread it out. It's in our own interest to do a good job at that."
According to one of Niessen's neighbors, Harold Pfaff, 76, a semi-retired farmer: "On other farms, he [Niessen] knifes the manure into the ground. On his own farm, he doesn't knife it in. He has a couple hundred acres of alfalfa. Twice a summer he cuts the alfalfa then sprays all over with manure, right up against the neighbors. It does smell pretty bad."
Niessen said if manure were injected into his alfalfa fields, the mechanical process would tear up the roots.
He also says Pfaff is causing trouble for him because of a business dispute.
Pfaff is one of the neighbors who asked the Henry County Planning Commission to halt Niessen's expansion plans.
According to Niessen, Pfaff wanted Niessen to apply manure for free on Pfaff's farm land.
"And he wanted to rent land to me to grow crops on," Niessen said. "I offered him $15 more per acre than he was getting, and he still didn't say yes. He didn't get what he wanted. He is really playing nasty games. I'm the new kid on the block."
Another difference between dairy farming here and in The Netherlands is that Indiana doesn't require farmers to inject or plow manure into the ground; the Dutch government does.
The reason?
To reduce ammonia emissions that contribute to odor, acid rain and other environmental problems, such as promoting the rapid growth in nature areas of a few plant species to the detriment of many others.
Lucrative megafarm market lures Europeans
Foreigners pulling up roots and migrating to America in droves
By Ben Sutherly, Mike Wagner and Laura A. Bischoff
Dayton Daily News
CONVOY | Jan-Hinnerk Morisse listened to lively exchanges in German, Dutch and English as camera-toting farmers sipped soft drinks and munched cookies in the big dairy's break room.
Old World farmers are coming to America — again.
Morisse traveled more than 4,000 miles from his farm near Wersabe, Germany, to learn more about large-scale dairies in the Midwest. After a weeklong tour of farms in August, he was poised to join dozens of other foreign farmers who have built large dairies in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
"I only have my parents. It’s a good moment to sell," said the 25-year-old Morisse, who owns a dairy with his father in Germany. "In Germany, you have to get permission for everything."
Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development LLC arranged for Morisse and 15 other German farmers to visit dairies recently built by Dutch immigrants. The Michigan-based company began importing Dutch farmers in 1998, and now is luring dairy farmers throughout Europe.
Henk and Helma Arts, who built their dairy with Vreba-Hoff's help and moved their family from the Netherlands two years ago, patiently answered the Germans' questions, explaining how they contract with local farmers for grain and hay for their 699-cow herd and communicate with their Spanish-speaking employees.
"The biggest reason for us to leave the Netherlands is it's very hard to expand," Helma told the German tour group in English. "It's a small country. Their regulations, they are hard to follow over there."
Besides, she said, "Our son really wants to become a farmer."
Drawn by affordable land, less restrictive environmental regulations and seemingly boundless opportunities to expand, European farmers are pulling up roots and migrating to America in droves. Already, 28 large dairies have opened in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan; 11 more are under construction or about to break ground. Vreba-Hoff officials expect to relocate 20 more farmers to the United States in the next two years.
Vreba-Hoff has helped relocate more Dutch farmers to Ohio than any other state. Some say Ohio reminds them of home, but that's not the only reason so many are choosing to come here. Nearly three times the size of the Netherlands, Ohio has fewer people.
Building barns in America is less expensive. There are no milk quotas here limiting expansion. And Dutch farmers who come to the Midwest leave behind some of the world's toughest environmental regulations.
Home to 14 million hogs, 108 million chickens, 4.2 million cattle and 1.4 million sheep, the Netherlands has one of the highest concentrations of livestock in the world — so high that Dutch policy mandates reducing the pig population by 10 percent. Livestock farmers are banned from applying manure in autumn and winter, and from putting manure on frozen ground. They also must inject their manure into the soil and follow strict requirements for ammonia emissions.
Land in the tiny European nation of 16,033 square miles can sell for as much as $20,000 an acre. That gives farmers a big incentive to head for the Midwest, where an acre of productive farmland can still be had for $2,000 to $3,000.
Overseas, Dutch farmers sell their government-issued milk quotas in a way similar to the reselling of liquor licenses in the United States. They can earn $800,000 to $900,000 by selling a milk quota for 50 cows, providing dairymen with a nice down payment to set up a larger farm in America.
But the infusion of Dutch farmers in the Midwest has some regulators concerned.
Virtually all the Ohio dairies are built to house just under 700 cows. The state requires farms with 700 milk cows to get a permit, which opens them to inspections and forces operators to have a written plan for handling manure.
Environmentalists also believe the Vreba-Hoff dairies intentionally kept their farms below 700 cows until the Ohio Department of Agriculture in August assumed authority of the megafarm permitting program from the state’s Environmental Protection Agency.
At least five Dutch dairies in Ohio have received environmental violation notices from the Ohio EPA, primarily for manure spills into creeks and storm water runoff. The Arts dairy was cited for polluting a creek and killing 8,000 snails in December 2001.
"We have not been happy with how they've operated," said Christopher Jones, director of the Ohio EPA. "We've started to do a number of inspections on them and seen some consistent problems."
On Wednesday, the Ohio Environmental Council sent a letter to Gov. Bob Taft asking him to halt construction on new Dutch dairies until all current Vreba-Hoff farms comply with the state's environmental laws. The council also wants the dairies to apply for federal pollution permits, which would place the farms under more scrutiny from regulators.
"We are aware that factory farm problems are not restricted to just the Dutch dairies," wrote Susan Studer-King, outreach coordinator for the council. But she said the Vreba-Hoff dairies warrant extra scrutiny because they were constructed "to circumvent state regulations."
Environmentalists in Michigan have also attacked large dairies, saying they're not committed to protecting local waterways. Janet Kauffman, a member of the Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan, noted that big dairies have invested millions of dollars in equipment.
"If they can put that kind of money into protecting the milk, why can’t they put that kind of money into protecting the streams and ditches?" Kauffman said. "They call it a state-of-the-art manure handling system, but it’s not. It’s put-it-in-a-pit and spray it on fields."
For now, Vreba-Hoff dairy farms are just shy of being classified as megafarms. But nearly all of them have begun to expand — or are expected to expand — to more than 1,000 cows. The Arts dairy has built a new barn as it prepares to expand its herd to 2,000 cows.
Helma Arts said the dairy's environmental problems have been solved. "We are watched very, very carefully," she said. "One of the reasons we do so many tours is so people see how clean and nice it is. And the cows are happy. It's not really a factory — the cows are happy here."
Vreba-Hoff officials acknowledged some of their dairies have had problems with manure runoff, but they said the violations were isolated incidents and have been addressed. Like many big farm operations, Vreba-Hoff supports having the agriculture department run the state's permitting program.
"We have a good relationship with the Department of Agriculture," said Cecilia Conway, a member of the Vander Hoff family that founded the Vreba-Hoff company.
Conway said the agriculture department's regulations are tougher than the EPA's.
"All of our farmers realize how much scrutiny that they’re under, and they’ve tried very, very hard to operate them well," she said.
Inside a Dutch dairy
The hostas, marigolds and bikes in front of the Arts dairy may be reminiscent of the Netherlands, but the scale of the dairy operation behind the milking parlor's brick fa¨ade is thoroughly American.
Three times a day, six Latino employees milk 600 cows. The cows generate enough milk each day to fill a 6,000-gallon milk tanker truck. The family's break-even milk price: $12 for every 100 pounds. Every dollar above that generates an additional $230 of profit per cow per year.
Between milkings, cows lounge in free stalls bedded with sand under 14 large fans and nearly an acre of roof. A mechanical pulley system keeps the aisles behind the stalls free of manure, scraping it to the center of the barn. From there, the manure is flushed down a trough into a lagoon that holds up to 2 million gallons of liquid.
A tractor pulls a wagon capable of holding 1,050 cubic feet of feed down the center of the 365-foot-long barn. Holsteins stick their necks through stanchions and devour the feed as the wagon deposits it in rows.
The Arts family is building a 20,000-square-foot barn as they prepare to expand their herd to 2,000 head. They’ve also put enough feed in storage for their growing herd. Helma Arts said the family this year packed away 3,000 tons of uncured hay and 8,000 tons of corn silage, in addition to the 2,500 tons of silage the family already had in storage.
The scope of the Ohio operation dwarfs the farm in the Netherlands where Henk and his father once had seven cows. But with millions of dollars invested in buildings and equipment, he said the new dairy is hardly the culmination of the American dream.
"It isn't a dream," he said. "It's a big risk."
One-Stop Shopping
To set up dairies in the Midwest, all European farmers need to do is dial up Vreba-Hoff's office in a strip mall in Wauseon, near the Michigan border. That, and see their banker.
For a fee, Vreba-Hoff scouts the land, builds the barns, buys the cows and equipment, lines up grain farmers to supply feed and land to spread manure, and provides technical advice. It also helps families navigate immigration, get Social Security numbers and deal with other relocation issues.
"It makes it a lot easier to go through Vreba-Hoff," Helma said.
On average, the cows, buildings, equipment and fees run about $2.5 million — excluding the land price.
The catalyst behind the migration of foreign dairy farmers is a family-owned company with roots in the Netherlands.
The Vander Hoff family runs Vreba-Hoff's two big dairies in Michigan, a leasing organization and its development arm. Four brothers, two sisters and three cousins — two in the Netherlands and one in the United States — own the company's holdings.
Stephen Vander Hoff immigrated to America in 1960, and worked as a farm hand and truck driver before buying a small dairy in Holland, Mich. The family went large-scale when it built its first big dairy — Vreba-Hoff I — near Hudson, Mich., in 1998. They spent $14 million to build Vreba-Hoff II, an identical dairy down the road, in 2001.
Both dairies are designed for 3,000 cows and are high-tech, using transponders on the cow collars that relay milking information on each cow to a computer database; a chill system cools the milk from 101 to 36 degrees in two minutes.
Each farm generates 16 million to 18 million gallons of manure per year, which is spread on 5,000 to 6,000 acres nearby, said Stephen Vander Hoff, the elder Vander Hoff's son and the manager of Vreba-Hoff II. Each farm produces 18,000 to 19,000 gallons of milk a day, putting the farms among Michigan's top 10 dairies, he said.
Such huge operations draw attention. Vander Hoff said 3,000 people attended an open house for Vreba-Hoff I, and groups are constantly calling to set up tours.
"I’m proud to be a farmer. I’m proud of what I’m doing," he said. "There’s nothing better than waking up every day and loving what you’re doing."
While Vreba Hoff I was under construction, family members saw an opportunity to build dairies for immigrating Dutch farmers. They started Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development LLC in 1998 and began recruiting clients. The company works closely with Willy Van Bakel, a cousin and a real estate broker in the Netherlands who also sells milk quotas. Van Bakel tells Dutch dairymen looking to move about Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development.
The courting began slowly, but now Vreba-Hoff has a steady stream of potential clients. Conway said the company conducts tours three times a year, each one with about 15 couples. The clients fly into Detroit or Chicago, tour farms in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, hear from milk marketers and feed organizations, and get a pitch in both English and Dutch from Vreba-Hoff staff before returning home.
Vreba-Hoff isn’t the only company looking to bring Dutch farmers to America. Real estate representatives from Michigan, Wisconsin and Washington attended an annual trade show in the Netherlands, and South Dakota is recruiting Dutch dairymen, Conway said.
She said Vreba-Hoff hopes to eventually build a dairy on the 5,000 acres it purchased outside of Columbus — land that had been proposed for the Darby Wildlife Refuge.
Conway doesn’t believe Dutch families have come to the United States because environmental regulations are less strict than those in their home country. Most Dutch dairy farmers just want a chance to be competitive, make a good living for their children and continue milking their cows, she said.
"This is what they know how to do, and they want to keep on doing it," she said. "So they are looking for opportunities outside their home country, and most of the farmers who we’ve built farms for have looked at other countries prior to coming to the U.S."
No Welcome Sign
The land is brown and flat in every direction, divided only by the dusty County Road C that weaves around the drought-stricken fields.
This is home, and almost heaven, to Jeroen and Josˇ Van Wezel.
Three years ago, the Dutch dairy farmers spent more than $15,000 traveling to France, Sweden and Canada in search of a new place to milk cows. But it wasn’t until they made one last trip that the couple decided to move their three young children to Ohio’s Putnam County from a tiny village in Holland, near the Belgium border.
"I know people here think this is the middle of nowhere, but after one day here and seeing all the land that wouldn’t cost us everything . . . we knew this was home," said Josˇ. "We are dairy farmers. Our parents were dairy farmers. Their parents were dairy farmers. It’s who we are, what we do and it’s what we will always be."
The Van Wezels' move to the United States is typical of foreign livestock farmers spread throughout Ohio’s countryside. They left family behind. They spent $1 million for an investment visa. They borrowed millions more to start up their dairy. They began running a farm 10 times bigger than what they used to manage. And they weren’t welcomed by neighbors.
With help from Vreba-Hoff, the Van Wezels arrived in America in February 2000. They trained, worked and lived near Vreba-Hoff’s operations in southern Michigan for about 18 months before opening their own 650-cow dairy farm late last year.
But while the Van Wezels, both in their early 30s, were making plans to build the dairy, their neighbors were making their own plans to kick the Dutch couple out of the neighborhood.
Led by Kathy and Dave Burkhart, neighbors in the tiny farming community of Miller City formed the Citizens of Putnam County for Clean Air & Water Inc. specifically to combat the Van Wezel farm.
The group collected more than 100 signatures on a protest letter sent to the Van Wezels. When that didn’t work, the group, along with another citizens group opposing a separate Vreba-Hoff farm, filed a motion in federal court asking a judge to halt construction.
The judge dismissed the request, but that group hasn't gone away.
"We felt it would adversely impact the quality of our lives, pose threats to our water, the air we breathe and our home values," said Kathy Burkhart. "That’s all proven to be true. That farm turned neighbor against neighbor. We used to be a tight-knit community — now we are on two sides."
The Van Wezels said an overwhelming majority of their neighbors have accepted and befriended their family. They said a small group of only six people, including the Burkharts, continue to protest the dairy.
"I think people need to realize that most farmers are real good environmental stewards," Josˇ said.
The Van Wezels have been under scrutiny by the Ohio EPA. On July 12 and July 13, they injected roughly 360,000 gallons of liquid manure into a 36-acre field. An estimated 3,000 gallons of manure spilled into a ditch, which runs into a nearby tributary.
The spill affected a three-quarter-mile length of the ditch, according to the Ohio EPA. Jeroen Van Wezel called the EPA on Sunday, July 14 at about 8 a.m., a half-hour after he discovered the spill.
The Van Wezels said the spill was due primarily to dry weather. Cracks in the soil developed, allowing manure to filter into the crevices and then the ditch.
"We are sorry the spill happened, but we did exactly what we were supposed to to clean it up," Jeroen said. "This is my home now, too. Why would we not want to keep it clean?"
From importer to exporter
While Dutch dairies are locating and expanding in America, some farm experts believe the United States will eventually become an exporter of farmers as land, labor, buildings and equipment become more expensive and regulations become more strict.
"Large animal production will move out of the country," said David Zartman, an animal sciences professor at Ohio State University. And with it, he predicted, will go the U.S. grain and feed industries.
Phil Warnken, founder of a Missouri-based business that promotes agricultural investments in Brazil, said opportunities there are nearly limitless.
"In the case of Brazil, it does not have the environmental controls that the U.S. has," said Warnken, president and CEO of AgBrazil. "Many producers look at that. Brazil does not have anything in place that's going to slow down livestock production as far as environmental controls. Right now, almost anything goes — within reason."
Once Brazil has slaughter houses and other infrastructure in place, livestock and poultry producers will move in quickly, Warnken predicted. A broiler slaughterhouse recently opened in the Brazilian state of Bahia, where Warnken relocates clients.
Warnken said Brazil provides cheap corn and soybeans, and labor costs are much lower than in the United States.
"We are going to be contacting some of the Dutch dairy producers because the opportunities there for milk production are just outstanding," he said. "There's just simply no question that that's where livestock's going to go."
Zartman said some of his colleagues argue that American consumers would never give up their food security, but he's not convinced.
"We'll import more of our food as long as they (consumers) think somebody inspected it," he said. "As long as it's cheap."
[From the Dayton Daily News: 12.06.2002]
Dutch dairy farmers cow-tow to social will
By Martin Ross FarmWeek Illinois Farm Bureau Tuesday, April 01, 2003
Holland’s dairy producers recognize they must remain visible to remain viable, the director of the nation’s lead dairy group told participants in Illinois Farm Bureau’s European market study tour.
Some 23,000 Dutch dairy farmers supply the country’s 11 dairy companies, two of which process roughly 80 percent of the nation’s milk.
According to Jan Maarten Vrij with the Nederlandse Zuivel Organisatie, most of that milk today comes from “typical, family-sized dairy farms,” with 50-60 cows.
He anticipates perhaps 5 percent annual growth in operations in coming years, with per-farm cow numbers possibly reaching 150.
Beyond Dutch dairy production quotas, growth may be limited to “what a family farm can handle without external labor,” he said.
Vrij stressed “it’s crowded here in this country,” where officials continue to reclaim land from the sea. With urban consumers often rubbing shoulders with producers and farming under increasing scrutiny, dairymen don’t want their currently positive public image blemished by “animal welfare pressure,” biotechnology, and other social concerns.
Over the last decade, “politicians and society in general have become much less interested in farming,” Vrij said. But Dutch dairy farmers find themselves constrained by public perception and expectation.
“We must be in dialogue with the world as a whole, to be acceptable to the society we live in,” Vrij told the Illinois producers.
“We are a negotiating people in this country, not a fighting people. Our main goal is an economically healthy business. We do what we can to meet that goal.”
He understands the impact social stigma had on Dutch hog farming, which has seen a 20-25 percent decline over the last few years.
That change came about after “people in the cities found out pigs had gone behind doors (into confinement) 30 years ago.”
Because “cows are still visible on the landscape,” dairy acceptance by the public is much greater, Vrij said.
Dutch dairy producers sell nearly a quarter of their goods domestically, though Vrij stressed Germany is “a very important market.”
The industry exports 20 percent of its product, including milk powder, condensed milk, and cheese, outside the EU to the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Russia.
Vrij said Holland’s dairy producers receive “very, very small subsidies.” An annual 2.5 billion Euros (each roughly the equivalent of a dollar) is divided among dairy interests in the European Union’s (EU) 15 member nations.
They benefit primarily from an EU “intervention system” that removes excess butter and skim milk powder from the market.
With the EU looking at reconfiguring ag supports, dairy producers in the future could receive more “direct income support,” Vrij said.
He hopes current World Trade Organization talks will yield “further liberalization of the world market,” reducing the need for government support.
Vrij noted a growing producer-retail price spread, and observed “youth is leaving the farm” (farmers seeking to start or expand operations must buy dairy quota from others).
Vrij realizes Northern Europe’s societal “license to produce” carries some aggravations, such as public emphasis on outdoor production regardless of production practicalities or animal welfare.
“For the image, we know it’s important to have cattle outside, but not all of them,” he mused.
Dutch pigmeat production levels settle and stabilize
Pork Industry News - The Pig Site Friday, March 14, 2003
NETHERLANDS - The level of pigmeat production in the Netherlands is not expected to fluctuate over the next few years, even though pig production will continue to fall a bit further.
This gentle downward trend emerges from figures published this week by the Product Boards for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE).
In line with predictions, the gross domestic production of the Dutch pig industry in 2002 was approximately 19.6 million pigs. The downward trend is expected to continue until 2005. Since the downturn is largely due to reduced piglet production and their subsequent export, domestic pigmeat production levels are not expected to change significantly over the next few years.
The downturn in gross domestic output reflects a drop in the size of the Dutch national pig herd, which declined by 3.1% to 11.2 million pigs in December 2002, compared to December 2001. Gross domestic production is expected to decrease by a further 5.6% in 2003, to 18.5 million pigs. After that, production is expected to gradually fall to 18 million pigs by 2005.
There are two main reasons for the downturn in pig production in the Netherlands.
Half the decrease is due to laws passed to cut the number of pigs produced in the country. There is also an economic reason for the downturn.
The strict legal requirements in the Netherlands governing the housing of pigs, hygiene management and the use of pig manure is too
high a cost for some Dutch pig farmers. This has led some farmers to either move out of pigs or leave farming altogether, thereby reducing the number of
producers.
....
The Economics of Factory Farming
DAIRY FARMERS EXPRESS ALARM OVER GROWING CONCENTRATION AT NATIONAL FAMILY FARMS COALITION MEETING
WILLIAM KATES, ASSOCIATED PRESS (published in THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER April 14, 2004, Issue #338) The increasing concentration of the dairy industry is leading to the demise of small family owned dairy farms and the domestic dairy industry, said dairy farmers from around the nation who met [April 1 in Syracuse, New York] with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
"If competition is so good, why don't we have some," said John Bunting, a dairy farmer from Delhi, N.Y., who was among more than 150 dairy farmers who gathered for Thursday's session held by the National Family Farm Coalition.
Like the rest of the nation, New York has experienced tremendous concentration at all levels of the dairy industry --- cooperatives, processors and retailers --- all of which have worked to reduce competition to the detriment of dairy farmers, he said.
"And there has been no gain for the consumer because of
that concentration,"
Bunting said.
The dairy farmers, who came from throughout the Northeast and
as far away as
Wisconsin and California, called on Spitzer to take the national
lead and begin investigating industry consolidation in New York
for possible antitrust violations.
"We are deeply concerned about these issues," Spitzer said, pledging to look into New York's situation. "Markets do not work ... unless the rules of competition are maintained."
Spitzer said it was clear that "small farms have an inadequate voice" in a dairy industry that is increasingly becoming dominated by corporations and giant cooperatives, such as Dairy Farmers of America, which controls about one-third of the nation's milk supply within its membership.
Joaquin Contente, a dairy farmer from Hanford, Calif., said in his state --- which is the nation's top dairy state producing about one-fifth of the country's milk --- there are fewer than 2,000 dairy farms.
The demise of the small dairy farm in California has been propelled by the state's pricing system, which guarantees the cost of production for processors but not for dairy farmers, Contente said.
Contente said the California dairy industry is dominated by three companies: Luprino Foods, the world's largest manufacturer of mozzarella; Dean Foods, the nation's largest fluid milk processor, which controls about 35% of all the fluid milk sold in the United States; and retail giant, Kraft Foods.
"Those three entities end up marketing all the product ... and they don't even compete against each other because one is in food service, one in retail and the other in fluid products. The thing about capitalism, if it's going to succeed, you have to have a balance of buyers and sellers," Contente said.
He added that from 2001 through 2003, the price America's dairy farmers received was 20% to 30% below the cost of production.
While most of the public is unconcerned with the economics of the dairy industry, it is a "flesh and blood issue" for the nation's dairy farmers, who are in "an unspeakable phase of suffering," said Brenda Cochran of Westfield, Pennsylvania., whose family milks 160 cows.
"We are in the final phase of the destruction of our domestic dairy industry. If government doesn't take our problems seriously, we won't have a domestic dairy supply in the near future," she said.
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Further reading of factory farm economics
Currently, a large dairy CAFO earns an additional $0.50 per hundred pound weight of milk. (Cornell University Future Structure of the Dairy Industry pdf) Not much, but still apparently enough to compel farmers to accept the industrial model. Yet, due to current overproduction, there is a glut of milk on the market. To address this problem, "the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) appears to be moving ahead with a plan to boost raw milk prices by removing milk from the U.S. market." (Dairy Foods, Plan to Reduce Milk Supply Detailed, Criticized). Bottom line: "Industrialization is not market driven." (J. Ikerd, The Real Economics of Factory Livestock).
Reduced operating costs come from many places including the inhumane treatment of animals and the use of growth hormones to lower farm prices. "The drugs have varying effects on livestock. Weight gains in dairy calves can be increased as much as 60 percent. Hogs can gain 10 percent more weight; beef cattle, about 6 percent, the study said. ...The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics, about 70 percent of total U.S. antibiotic production, are fed to chickens, pigs and cows for nonherapeutic purposes." (UCS Report Hogging It) "We estimate that each year US livestock producers feed healthy livestock about 13.5 million pounds of antibiotics the EU has banned." CAFOs also use less labor and more machinery to achieve production output. Those that do work on CAFOs are subject to numerous health hazards. "Many studies of CAFOs have documented respiratory problems, including chronic bronchitis and non-allergic asthma, in approximately 25 percent of CAFO workers. Workers at CAFOs are also exposed to the potent neurotoxin hydrogen sulfide at levels that have accelerated deterioration of neurobehavioral function." (John Hopkins Public Health Association Calls for Moratorium on Factory Farms; Cites Health Issues, Pollution ). Cost shifting further reduces the costs of production. "Cost shifting occurs when the costs of health problems, traffic, social problems and pollution (odors, chemical and particulate air pollution; chemical, pathogen, and particulate water pollution) are transferred to the residents of a region and are neither paid by the company responsible for the costs nor included in the price of the products they market." (Dr. W. Weida, Regional Development and Confined Hog Feeding Operations). These are but a few practices that should cause us to pause and ask, is that worth the 50 cents?
The National Union of Canadian Farmers have written an interesting report entitled The Farm Crisis, Bigger Farms and the Myths of Competition and Efficiency, (Nov. 2003). They conclude: "Food production should lead to enriched soils, a more beautiful countryside, jobs for non-farmers, thriving rural communities, and enriched natural ecosystems. The decimation of rural communities, growing environmental problems, declining farm numbers, and the present farm income crisis cast doubt on the sustainability of the current high-input, export oriented, expansionist model." (National Union of Farmers)