Enne (1959) was born as the son of a dairy farmer and worked full-time on the parental dairy farm from the age of 16. After eight years the switch was made to a company for agricultural custom work. In 1990 he continued his work for an agricultural services company. From 2002 he worked as an independent entrepreneur in agricultural services, mainly at dairy farms.

 

Hannah (1963) comes from a family of entrepreneurs in the textile industry. After a number of relocations, the family ends up in Friesland. Already at a young age, in her free-time she works at dairy farms in the area. After completing highschool, she started her career as a counselor in psychiatric healthcare. After the birth of their first child, she takes care of the children full-time and also has various part-time jobs.

 

Johanna (1984) follows the MBO Social Cultural Work after the MAVO, and obtains her Bachelor of Social Work. She starts her career as a Social Worker in foster and youth care and she follows the Bachelor Pedagogical Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. Then she obtained her Master of Science, specialization in Forensic Child and Youth care Sciences, started her own practice, Loving Caring, became a teacher at the University and started her PhD.

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Her spouse Klaas (1979), whose father worked as an international truck driver, has been working at a neighboring dairy farm from an early age. But he also has a great interest in heavy equipment and is trained as a mechanic. He started his career at the age of 17 as an apprentice mechanic at an agricultural mechanization company and through continuous training he got to know the ins-and-outs of increasingly heavier machines. Over the years he has developed into an all-round mechanic and is working with heavy equipment until today.

 

Douwe (1986) helped a lot at our farm from an early age and worked on a dairy farm, but also has a great love for construction. At the age of 17, he started as a carpenter apprentice and completed his studies as a carpenter at the age of 21. From 2013 he started his own carpentry company in addition to his participation in our partnership as an independent entrepreneur.

 

His spouse Annelies (1990) comes from a family that runs a transport company. She has had a great interest in animals from an early age, so she attended an MBO training for veterinary technician after the VMBO and started to work for a veterinary practice in 2010. She also follows a training as a dog groomer and starts her own business in 2013.

 

Jelmer (1990) has had a varied technical interest from an early age and did an education as an electrician, after which he leaves for Amsterdam at the age of 17 for an international training as an aircraft technician, after which he works for the Dutch Air Force for a year. He also has his own company as a repairer of mobile phones. After that, he works for a while as an independent entrepreneur, working in the solar energy sector and as a technical engineer in the automotive sector. In 2016, he joined Siemens as a wind turbine technician. From the end of 2019, he is again active as an independent entrepreneur and has started his own, internationally oriented company, Power Solutions, which specializes in off-the-grid energy supplies.

 

Over the years, our family has been voluntary active for the community in various ways.

 

 

Sorry this translation is done by google and needs some work.

 

Our current agricultural family business

finds its origin on the 'Bakkerspôlle' (1914)

located in the Eastern corner of

It Heidenskip in the province of Fryslan from 

the Netherlands.

 

Enne and Hannah started their company

when they moved to the family farm on

April 1, 1995, with the three children,

Johanna, Douwe and Jelmer. Enne 

renovated a part of the cow stables to horse

stalls. The horse boarding was started and

soon grew in capacity to 13 horses.

In addition to taking care of the children and

her part-time work job, Hannah started 

a worm breadery for fishing named 

"Grutte Pier". The children grew up in a 

business environment with a lot of visitors,

which gave a lot of fun. They were happy to

help. As activity grew, there was also help

from young people from the village. 

The worm farm is expanded in 1997 and

would provide for the main income from that

time. Enne and Hannah enter into a partnership, Grutte Pier v.o.f. is a fact. Sales of 6 to 7 tonnes of worms are shifting from the European to the North American market. Their worms can be found there from 1998 in the refrigerators of gas pumps and country stores in the United States and Canada.

 

If, after the outbreak of the economic crisis in America, trade suddenly collapses, we looked for another source of income within the agricultural sector. 2009 is all about company visits, calculations and meetings, in 2010 a brand new barn is built behind the old farm that will house more than 11,000 organic layer hens. The open day is held in November, after which the first chickens arrive soon. Chicken farm 'De Útrin' is born. The horse housing becomes a side issue.

The worm breadery did come to a halt in 2012. Douwe joined the partnership in 2013. He makes a restart with the breadery, after Enne has assured him of sales through the old contacts. Douwe restores everything and delivers around 4 tonnes of worms annually, which are also sold to North America.

 

In 2014, it was decided to further expand the partnership with Johanna and Klaas. Together, property "De wide Luts" is purchased, where from that time Douwe and Johanna and Klaas work and live and daughter Ilse is born there. At this former pig farm, two of the barns are being restored by our family to house 7,000 organic broiler chickens. The present horse stalls have been restored and populated with horses. We are once again running a horse boarding that can accommodate a maximum of 13 horses and ponies, there is also a barn available for car and caravan parking and the last barn is rented out and used as a workshop. Horses, cattle and chickens are on the property, together with the children of the many visitors who enjoy themselves on the playground. When Douwe and Annelies get a permanent relationship, she too starts to help a hand. Our house sales of eggs and chicken meat are being expanded and the chickens are slaughtered in our butcher's shop. Son Jelmer helps in all sorts of ways, because he took is responsible for a lot of the technical matters and his wife Trienke is also happy to help sometimes.

Yet all these activities do not deliver what we expect. It is hard to keep good courage in this country with exaggerated government regulations and the difficult handling of suspicious inspections from various authorities. There is a constant threat of bird flu and then there are trade prices that are under big pressure. To protect the prize for organic eggs, Hannah from 2013-2014 is involved in establishing the cooperative "BiomeerwaardeEi" as secretary of the daily management.

Moreover, the layer hen farm has problems with the neighboring dairy farmer, who demands an unobstructed view and therefore counteracts any form of outdoor planting to protect the chickens, which results in a dispute over many years. In November 2017, the Supreme Court ultimately determines that the layer hen farm is entitled to proper planting of the range.

All of these things take away a lot of the pleasure with which we do our work, which together makes us decide in 2016 to change our course.

 

The layer hen farm is therefore sold at the end of December 2016 to brother Johannes, his wife Ymkje and son Evert, who now lives there with his girlfriend Lisa and daughter Marit and also runs a successful landscaping company.

Enne and Hanny are the first to leave for Canada and buy the Gulley Farm, a dairy farm with a 33.4 kg quota with two houses and an old workers' house in eastern Ontario.

Klaas, Johanna and Ilse will follow in March 2017. Klaas finds work at Toromont CAT in Kanata. In the meantime, 'De wide Luts' is also for sale. Douwe and Annelies are coming to Canada in September 2017 and are full-time involved in all the activities in the farm.

Klaas returns to the Netherlands for four months and takes care of the property when he comes home their son Nick is born in January 2018. They buy a nice house near the farm. 'De wide Luts' will eventually be sold in April 2018.  Klaas helps on the farm with repairs and fieldwork. Johanna has a horse there and visits the farm with clients from her Parenting Practice Loving Caring, which she has restarted here.

Douwe and Annelies, their daughter Fenna is borne in November of 2018.

Jelmer and Trienke, who live and work in the Netherlands, have a small cottage on their property which is being renovated before we leave. This is rented to Bed and Breakfast guests, but when we visit the Netherlands we can stay there too.

 

The Gulley Farm has a little outdated when we purchase it, but in the meantime much has been restored and renewed. Our herd is doing well. We live and work here with great pleasure and the farm offers challenges for the future in many ways. In addition to his work on the farm, Douwe carried out his first carpentry jobs here in Canada. Next to caring for Fenna and the small calves, Annelies has a job at the 'Sweet Tooths' store in Renfrew.

 

Hannah studied immigration laws, policies and procedures and is now starting her "With Hannah to Canada" Advisory. She provides advice to interested parties for immigration in the agricultural field, also based on her many years of experience. Together with Johanna she will also give workshops for farmers based on the theme: How do we feed the world?  Next to this runs a Bed & Breakfast in March 2019 in their beautiful Blue home, on 140 Tinswood Road.