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Farming insider: Van Triest Farm, the Netherlands
About the Van Triest family
62-year old Wim Van Triest works in partnership with his son, Arco (37). Together they run a dairy farm with 120 dairy cows. The farm has been in the family for four generations, and Arco will soon take it over from his father. Arco's wife already works in the management, and their five children love running around the farm. This gladdens grandpa Wim's heart. Annie Van Triest, Wim's mother, has been living on the farm for 70 years.
Farm facts
The fourth generation of the family business: Father and son work hand in hand.
Location: Van Triest Farm, Emst, the Netherlands
Crop cultivated: Sugar beetFeed for dairy farming
Special features: The Van Triest family also makes fence posts from the wood that grows on their land.
This farm has been running since 1900,
and now my children are here.
Question time
This farm has been running since about 1900. Did it always belong to your family?
Annie: I have been living here for nearly 70 years. We had seven children, one of whom went on to run our farm – and that is Wim.
Wim: Yes, I was born and raised on this farm.
Arco: And his father lived here as well. We have reached the fourth generation. Now my children live here alongside my grandmother. It is wonderful to see how everything is so interwoven. What makes our farm special is its history.
Father and son work together here.
Wim: I started at the age of 16. I left agricultural college and started working on the farm. I went into partnership with my father, and built up the farm further. Later, I took over the farm from him. I must say that I am very happy to be working with Arco now, like I did with my father.
Arco: I think it is really cool and I am proud to do this with my father. We work together very well; we are very alike. It works really well. I like the way that he has structured things.
And soon you will take over the farm?
I have not taken over the farm yet, although I hope to be able to do so soon. But that will only be when he says “OK, I'm stopping".
Wim: Arco and his wife already handle a lot of administrative things like the accounting. It takes a big weight off me to work like that.
Arco: My grandmother can also see how the business is continuing and growing. She is very interested in how we will do it all – that is lovely.
Annie: We meet for coffee, and everything gets discussed, but I don't really have a say myself. There is no need.
You have 120 dairy cows to take care of. Can you still have a private life?
Wim: I think that as a farmer you have to make sure that you have a private life, you still have free time, and everything doesn't revolve around the farm all the time. We give each other some freedom. If Arco says “I have to leave at six this evening”, then I take the baton and do the milking for a while. And if I am planning something, Arco takes over for me. It is wonderful to be able to do it in the family like that.
What business challenges does your farm face?
Arco: Really, the big challenge at the moment is politics. What is going to happen? What is planned? What will the status of the farming sector in the Netherlands be? I hope that farming will continue to be well supported, because it is an honest, sound, and smart sector.
Wim: I have always wanted to have a viable business; this could be through buying land, cow's milk quotas, phosphate rights and so on. I have always tried to generate a full income from the farm. Really, that was always a challenge for me.
Arco: Financially, it is indeed challenging. Also, the work keeps changing, and you work like an animal. The weather. You are also dependent on things like that.
Arco, would you also like to hand on the farm to your children in the future?
I hope that my children will take over the farm. I would like it if one of them carried on in this place. That would be cool. But if they go somewhere else, that is fine for me as well. But it's not like I will force them.
To be a farmer your heart needs to be in it. What are the happiest moments on the farm?
Wim: You know, sometimes when I look across the fields in the morning, then I feel happy.
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