Groothuis family, Sleen, The Netherlands

One of our satisfied customers is the Groothuis family in the Netherlands. They have a dairy farm with a small sugar beet business. They milk 110 cows with two DeLaval Robots. In addition, they have about 83 young stock. In recent years, they have implemented a lot of automation and field work has increasingly been outsourced through partnership with arable farmers, contrary to what they did in the past. The family has been working with the UNIFORM Management program for 25 to 30 years now. How did that happen?

“We even stayed within the quota up to 13 kg last year.”

“When the I&R system (mandatory Identification and Registration of Dutch animals) was introduced, it was useful to have a program suitable for this purpose and that’s how we started with the UNIFORM package. This made it easy to gain insight into certain key figures about the herd’s technical data. When the phosphate quota later was set, we optimally started using the new Phosphate Planner and Quota Planner (specific to the Netherlands). These modules ensured that the program was user-friendly and helped to maintain up to date records. We use these modules for buying phosphate when necessary and making decisions on selling cows. The program helps us to optimize milk production regarding the quota and not to exceed it, especially when planning ahead with pregnant young stock, as the replacement rate is also taken into account by the program. We even stayed within the quota up to 13 kg last year. The UNIFORM-Agri software also helps us to improve our business operations. By interpreting the data from the overviews better, our technical results have improved. In addition, we use the program to make production forecasts for the liquidity budget to the bank.

We can therefore certainly recommend the UNIFORM Management program to other dairy farmers. The program is user-friendly and the App in particular is a great advance in entering up-to-date data. We are also looking forward to the update of the Financial module (specific to the Netherlands), so we can also start working with that module.”