The subsidy for wolf -resistant rasters is going up for the second time this year. Now very big. More than 3.3 million euros will be added to help all more than 438 subsidy applicants (often sheep farmers).
In May of this year, the Provincial Executive (GS) also raised the amount with six tons, but that is not nearly enough. Ultimately, there are 438 applicants who apply for an average of 8,800 euros. So a total of more than 4 million is needed, where 665,000 was originally estimated.
The grid must be at least 120 centimeters high and there must be power threads.
According to the Provincial Executive, the approach works with wolf -resistant rasters. The province itself did a practical test between October 2024 and May 2025. “During this test, in areas with wolves 114 mobile wire griders were placed for professional sheep and goat farmers. In this period, more than 10,000 animals were protected against attacks of wolves. In this period only one wolven attack within a grid of the practical test was taken place. The attack was explained “Writing GS.
According to GS, the size of a wolven rod depends on, among other things, the amount of food that is available. If the hoof animals are well protected, less food is available and the number of wolves will decrease. “
If fewer sheep are killed by wolves, the province also needs to pay less compensation to farmers. The dead sheep are now reimbursed by the province, but that may change in the future. The province is considering giving compensation only to farmers who have a wolf -resistant grid around their pasture.
In Barneveld, a wolf jumped almost twenty times over a wolf -resistant grid. But according to provincial wolven consultant Jaap Mekel, that is an exception. “We have not yet seen this behavior at Wolven in Drenthe. De Wolf came to the Netherlands ten years ago and this is the first Wolf to do this.” According to the wolven consultant, jumping is also not at all in the nature of the wolf. “If he has the choice to walk around something or to jump over something, he always opts for the first.”
The more than 3.3 million extra for wolf -resistant rasters gets GS from the free spending space, the Provincial States still have to agree.