The Ettikhoven siblings are all entrepreneurs at heart; from transport company to agricultural service company, from floral art to farm. All have their own company, and all have a link to the agricultural world. In Alphen aan de Rijn, brother Gert and sister Lies van Ettikhoven, together with an employee, run the dairy farm.
In 2018, a new barn was built for the dairy cows. With a milk increase of almost 10 liters of milk per cow, the new building project can certainly be called a success. In the old barn there was still overcrowding, in the new barn a conscious choice was made for cow comfort. "It was actually immediately clear that Spinder barn equipment would be installed in the barn. The old Spinder fences from 1988 are still working great, and another brand, which we bought in between, has since been replaced. We are now deliberately choosing quality and longevity again."
The best advice Lies can give for dairy farmers looking to renovate their barn or build a new barn is to ask for advice. "We don't do something like this every day, and consultants, counselors and dealers do. Their advice always makes it better than you could have done it yourself. For example, for the layout of the barn and cow traffic, we got a lot of helpful tips from the Spinder dealer. From another advisor we got the tip to collect the rinsing water in a separate tank. Trailing slurry fertilization always requires adding water, which is then taken from this separate tank. No disposal cost for the rinsing water and no purchase cost for the additional mixing water. We had never been that smart ourselves."
The following Spinder products were used in the barn:
