What a day! I was certainly sad to leave Holland, and
especially sad to leave the Kloosterboer home. I cant believe how much I have
grown to enjoy the Netherlands.
In the morning Christiaan and I walked around his farm and
learned the extensive history behind each part of the farm. The pictures do far
more justice than I can, but this farm is quite cool. It is currently a
finalist in a competition being the most authentic/beautiful farm in their
area. I would vote for it; its stunning! Parts of the house were built as late
as the 1500s, and other parts built in every century thereafter. It is amazing
to see what people could do without all the machines, technology, and research
that we have today. Certainly something one could be proud of.
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| The alignment of the bricks was meant to collect and divert water |
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A huge pear tree
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After this, we went to the CRV headquarters where I could finally see how big CRV really is, especially since I was accustomed to the smaller USA office. It was so nice to meet the people Danyel, Gerwin, and Brett all worked with over the phone that I never met in person J
My new friend Niek, who toured me around to a few farms a
couple days earlier, got me a couple CRV promotional items. I got a wooden shoe
bottle opener! How neat is that. Because of this, Niek is my new best friend.
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| Me with Sunny Boy, CRV's most famous bull that has a ton of daughters! Second in the world I believe. |
Next, we went to an outstanding herd of red and white
Holsteins. Plenty of cows in this barn produced a consistent 4 percent fat AND
protein at over 25,000 pounds of milk. Not to mention the cows had great rear
udders and had reproductive benchmarks that would make a US farmer drop his jaw
knowing they use zero ovsync programs. This farmer was very modest in how good
his cow’s numbers were. Recently, some of his cows that he genomically tested
were well-above parent average and received bull contracts immediately.
After leaving the farm, it turned out I met this farmer’s
son at expo this past fall and I am facebook friends with him. Such a small
world!
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| A high genomic heifer that is just one year old and huge. |
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| A Snowman heifer that the farmer bought at the Royal. |
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| I love the wooden clogs! |
After the tour, we returned home to have a going away dinner
in Bathmen at the local restaurant. Before I showed up I assumed this small
town of 2,000 wouldn’t have a huge fancy restaurant. Boy was I wrong. The food
I ate there was wonderful and so creative. The wine was great but the company
was even better. We enjoyed having the family’s friends stop by when they drove
through town and even joining us for a few drinks.
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| Bathmen's luxury restaurant |
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| A bay shrimp appetizer with an apply slaw and hollandaise sauce. |
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| The chef heard that I love food and let me take a look in their kitchen while cooking. So cool! |
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| Duck breast with a red wine reduction and leeks. |
This was one of those nights where you realize how people
make us exponentially happy. Ask anyone, I love good food and drinks. I really
do. And thus, food makes me happy! But, when fun and dear people are nearby,
that happiness gets even greater and greater. I can’t thank the Kloosterboer
family enough for opening their home to me. I can’t wait to get to know them
more when they move to Madison this summer!
As an early morning birthday present, Christiaan drove me to
the airport at 4 am the next day where I fell asleep instantly at take off only
to wake up right after landing in Zurich. I had loved every moment of the
Netherlands and look forward to a return soon J
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| Who doesnt love good wine? Had a wonderful time! |
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