The sheep herd of the Balloërveld has been saved. The 370 heath sheep of the stopping shepherds of Balloo, Marianne Duinkerken and Albert Koopman, go to the Brabant country. And to battle for landscape management in Heeze by Herder Riaan Vijfom. He brings ‘a bit at home’ to Brabant for his wife Trudy Hebinck, because she originally rolled out.
Marianne Duinkerken was in tears a while ago. The new shepherds who will maintain the Balloërveld for Staatsbosbeheer did not take over her herd, despite earlier commitments, she said.
But funginess around the registration of a large part of the animals was the reason for that. Half of the sheep were not properly registered in the system of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. This registration is necessary due to animal diseases and origin. The Stroomdalherders then decided to come to Ballloo with part of their own herd of Schoonebeker sheep.
For a long time it was uncertain what the fate would be of the Drenthe heath sheep of Balloo. But in the end, Strijdom finally spoke the redeeming word last week. He can very well use the sheep herd of the Balloërveld for grazing his nature reserves. “We have lost ten percent of our sheep by blue tongue and desperately need them.”
In the meantime, the issue of registration of part of the ballo herd has also been arranged, after consultation with the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). “It has been agreed that the entire herd will stay together, and nowhere else are allowed to go. They will stay here at the end,” says Vijfom. He himself has 1,600 Kempen heath sheep. But his wife Trudy is lyrical about the Drenthe heath sheep. “They are so beautiful, with those characteristic heads and impressive horns, and also quirky.”
The young border collie horn moves with the sheep to the Brabant country. Marianne Duinkerken is very happy that her herd is right now. “A burden falls away from me, I was so incredibly sorrow of it. They have been looking here a few times here. I hope our sheep can be very old there,” she says.
Tomorrow and Sunday there will be goodbye to the shepherds of Balloo, and of the sheep, with a Wolfeest. The herd is then shaved, and will be transported to Heeze on Sunday evening. It will be a party with a smile and a tear, but also with a lot of bitterness.
Marianne Duinkerkerken, who worked for 25 years at the Balloërveld, has tried to pick up money for former shepherd and former partner Albert Koopman at the Friends of the Friends of Heidschaap Balloërveld foundation. She demanded 45,000 euros for Koopman’s retirement. There is 120,000 euros in the cash from this foundation that receives money from donors. But he rejects the request.
For chairman Arnold Hoosbeek of the Foundation, the clip and ready. “This foundation was not set up to supplement salaries of the shepherds.” Moreover, the club, he says, is ‘completely finished with Marianne Duinkerken as a shepherd’. “We do not intend to help this shepherd, she herself has been bothered. It has only been misery with her in recent years. I am so scolded, terrible. The book is closed for us. We are committed to the new shepherds. And we put the money in adjustments to the Schaapskooi and other improvements, such as for hay storage.”
The Schaapskooi Balloo Foundation, which runs the cage and the buildings around it, gives the departing Dunkirk until the end of this month to deliver everything clean. “The cage must be delivered clean and disinfected. And then the new shepherd Julie Teunen pulls into the house. And then we can continue with the new shepherd with fresh courage,” concludes chairman Bert Knol.