Farmer Joeri reduces his emissions: “At the moment I am the only one investing”

Many farmers do not dare to invest now for fear that the investment will be for nothing if the rules regarding nitrogen change. Joeri also suffers from changing rules, which meant that the calculation of nitrogen emissions had to be repeated every time.

“But I think that the permit for the new barn has now been properly arranged. We have a statement from the municipality and the province,” said Joeri. It took two years to obtain the permit, but construction is already underway. “This week they started on the pit walls, it should be ready sometime in October,” says Joeri.

The barn that is built ensures a reduction of the ammonia emissions, created by the cows. The ammonia largely consists of nitrogen, so the barn is part of the solution to reduce nitrogen emissions.

“The gentleman from the bank said ‘at the moment we have zero requests for stables’. So I am now the only one,” says Joeri. The stable builder also indicates that they used to be picky about the assignments, but now they have to accept everything. “Fortunately, we still have enough work for everyone,” said the barn builder.

Joeri says that he was protesting in Stroe yesterday. He believes that buying out offers no prospects. “When you buy out everyone, the problem is solved and you no longer have to innovate,” says Joeri.

According to him, that is a shame, because there is a lot of ingenuity involved with farmers and the companies around them. “Over here, someone has a machine that reduces 70 percent of the ammonia, but people don’t even want to look at it,” explains Joeri.

Joeri also understands that sometimes difficult choices have to be made. “It will sometimes be difficult in nature reserves, but we must continue to encourage innovation.”

Savings

The new barn that Joeri is having built has significant savings on emissions. “It goes from 13 kilos to 6 kilos of ammonia per cow,” says Joeri. However, there are still doubts about these figures. There are now some lawsuits pending claiming that the savings have been measured too favorably, and that ultimately 7 kilos per cow remains.

The barn saves money thanks to a so-called eco floor, this floor ensures that the cow’s urine does not come into contact with the cow pies as much as possible. When these do come into contact, the polluting gas is created.

more cows

Building a new barn is very expensive and to make this profitable, Joeri takes more cows. “Instead of 70, I now take 100,” he explains. According to him, this makes his company future-proof and his children can also farm here. “This does not reduce my nitrogen emissions, but I have to buy the right for the thirty extra cows from another farmer.”