Sustainability

Sustainability is a broad concept ….

In order to deal with animals, raw materials and the environment in a responsible manner, it is important to take steps and implement improvements in as many areas as possible.

Below you will find a summary of the steps we have taken in recent years and you will also find various interesting aspects of our business operations here.

Energy generation

Already in 2011 we have stepped into energy generation from solar panels. At the moment we are almost completely self-sufficient for our own electricity consumption and we also heat up our new Windstreek house completely. We do this with three installations with a total of 444 panels, see the photo below. In addition, we also purchased hot water panels in 2017. These heat a large water tank of 50,000 liters, together with a heat pump and soil storage. This allows us to heat up a large part of the required heat from house 2 (where the panels are located) with the sun.

In addition to the heating of the hot water panels (up to 80°C with only the sun!), we also have a heat pump for the milk tank to cool the milk to 4°C. The heat that is released during this process is not only used as hot water for cleaning, but also for heating our house. And if there is still a surplus of heat, thiswill be stored in the aforementioned closed soil system, so that we can use it in cold times. Below you can see an image with the temperature overview of the hot water installations.

Heat exchanger

Since 2009 we have been using a heat exchanger to preheat the air that is coming into the house with the heat from the air that is blown out. Below is the suction filter in which the air is sucked into the exchanger. The chimney of the exhaust fan can also be seen on the roof.

Pure water from our well

We have our own wells from which we pump the drinking water for the animals. With the help of the Fermanox principle, pure water is pumped up, leaving the iron and manganese in the soil. A strong magnet then ensures that the lime that is naturally present in the water will not attach to pipes and equipment. To ensure a constant quality of drinking water, we have the water analyzed by a recognized laboratory twice a year.

Know what it weighs ….

By weighing the trucks on our own weighbridge, we know immediately what the chickens, corn or straw weigh and with this we are able to quickly respond to the current situation.