Chopping, driving and unloading. Working on land is the most normal thing in the world for Suus Kleiman from Zevenbergen. That while the 22-year-old six years ago could not have thought that she would work in the agricultural sector. Now she films her work and has thousands of followers on Tiktok. They see that Suus does not turn her hand for early mornings and long days between grass, corn and machines. “I prefer nothing more.”
She tells that Southwest TV. At the age of seventeen Suus starts training as a veterinarian assistant. During her internship she works between the pigs and goats. “I thought that was so incredibly fun,” she says enthusiastically. Yet Suus notes that the training does not fully suit her. She makes the switch to the MBO course Livestock, and that choice appears to be the right one: she successfully completes the course. Large cattle and machines pull suus.
“I did an internship at a livestock farm and there I was allowed to work with cows. I thought this was really great.” If she gets the tip from different farmers to get her tractor driving license, she decides to do this. After she has achieved that, it seems nice to help with a contractor with harvesting. Suus ends up at Loonbedrijf De Regt in Etten-Leur, where she has been working for three and a half years now.
“If you had told me six years ago that I would like this work, I would have really laughed at you.” And now Suus can no longer imagine her life. For the people around her it took some getting used to. “I don’t come from a farmer’s family myself. My parents occasionally don’t understand that I like to get up so early and get home again, but I think it’s the best thing there is.”
When Suus started working between the cows, she also started making Tiktok videos. “This was very well received by farmers and ordinary citizens.” Suus decides to post more and more and more videos. “I now have more than 25,000 followers. That went really fast.” She likes it to show her daily work. “I reach a lot of people with it and that makes it fun to do.”
“My life has changed dramatically.”
“My life has changed dramatically since I do this work,” she says. “I now know the way of Sint Philipsland (ed. In Zeeland) to Bavel. I really didn’t know that before,” she laughs. Suus still likes to go shopping with girlfriends, but she has received other interests. “I am now also going to barn parties, tractor tracts and tent parties.” And there she comes across many acquaintances from her new life. “Nice to see each other that way.”