Sustainable stories with livestock farmers Marcel and Henrike Veurink

This story was also published in the CSR 2023-2024 report, released Nov. 5, 2024.

"Quite a lot is possible."

Halving the footprint on the farmyard
Marcel and Henrike Veurink run their Agrarisch Bedrijf Veurink Vof on sandy soil in Arriën, a hamlet in the Overijssel Vecht valley. They do so with 115 cows and 40 young stock, a mix of Brown Swiss, Swedish Red and Holstein. Marcel and Henrike are participating in a pilot project of CONO Kaasmakers and Unilever. The goal is to reduce the footprint on the farm by half compared to 2015 by the end of 2025. This will include additives for slurry, young livestock, forage harvesting, grass/clover sowing, energy generation and consumption.

livestock farmers Marcel and Henrike Veurink

The lowest footprint of the pilot group
Marcel and Henrike's dairy farm had the lowest footprint of the pilot group in 2023: 74.2 kilograms of CO2-eq. per 100 kilograms of milk. By comparison, CONO's 2025 target is 120 kilograms of CO2-eq. or less per 100 kilograms of milk. "The high longevity of our cows, that already makes a difference," says Marcel. "That means you need less cattle for your milk production. Also, the above-average production per cow means a lower footprint per kilogram of milk. So we had a good starting position." But Marcel and Henrike didn't want to stop there. Henrike: "The carbon footprint is becoming increasingly important if you want to be able to sell your product in the future, so you want to know what is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That's why, after an information evening from CONO about this project, we decided to participate."

Lowering the footprint with feed
Marcel: "In a project like this, you start with the measures that are easy to implement. For us, that was sowing a grass/clover mixture, for example, to reduce fertilizer use, and we added Vizura to the cow manure when applying it. This makes better use of the nitrogen in the manure. Feeding residuals from the food industry also has a beneficial effect. We were already doing this with beet press pulp, but now also with brewer's grains. And we now first look at how we can replace a maximum of mixed feed (pellets) with residual flows when drawing up a ration. You can also choose that better these days, because producers have to provide insight into what the emission values are." Marcel: "We are now working with our supplier, ABZ Diervoeding, to see if, by choosing other raw materials, we can modify the pellets we still feed in such a way that the footprint becomes lower at the same feed value."

Investing further
Marcel and Henrike want to reduce the footprint of the milk even further and to that end are seriously counting on plans for a manure digester, which will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Marcel: "On the back of a cigar box it looked good, but now the permit is in and we can apply for SDE subsidy and make a business plan." Henrike: "This too is an investment that has to be recouped."