Introduction

Hi I am Anze Stirn, I am from Spodnji Brnik, Slovenia. I'm Bart Penninx and I'm from Boekel. We are in the exchange program from Gimnazija Sentvid and Udens College. We had to do a special project, and we've been working on it for just one week now. Anze came to the Netherlands this week. Bart will come to Anze's place in March. In this week we decided or fthe subject of our project. It is agriculture.

Planning research

In the first week we collected all kinds of data. That's because we want to compare the efficiency and the sustainability between the two countries. We also visited a farm which was open for tourists and we took a look at Bart's farm too. The farms in the Netherlands are a lot bigger than in Slovenia.

Our subject

We had to decide what our project was going to be about. We decided that our subject is agriculture. We're going to compare the differences and the efficiency and sustainability between the agriculture in the Netherlands and Slovenia. We also had to formulate a main question.

Our main question is: What are the main differences in producing milk between the Netherlands and Slovenia?

Subquestions

We also had to formulate some subquestions:

• Which country has the highest efficiency (grass to milk)?
• Which country produces the best quality milk?
• Which options does a farmer have, to make his farm more efficient?
• Is the amount of cows on one farm different between the two country's, and how does that influence the quality?
• What impact does the relief have on the efficiency in the Netherlands and in Slovenia?

24.9.2013 In the Netherlands

When we were in the Netherlands, we also did some excursions. We went to a farm that's open for visitors, we also had a good look at Bart's farm. Another excursion that had nothing to do with the project was a visit to an old mill. This was interesting for Anže because his father makes wooden constructions, and a mill is the most obvious example for wooden constructions in the Netherlands.

In March Bart will come to Slovenia. In between we're going to make sure that we've all data we need. So that when we're in Slovenia we don't have a lot of work to do, and we can finish it on time. When we're in Slovenia we're probably going to visit a farm with cows and maybe we can visit the ministry of agriculture.

24.3.2014 In Slovenia

Planning for the week : 

Greetings from Slovenia, Bart arrived in Slovenia last Friday. We're working on the project again. 

Tomorrow we're going to visit some farms, a cheese production factory and a cabbage production site.
We also are planning to visit Lake Bled, because it's close to one of the farms we are going to visit. Wednesday we will work on the project all day, and we are going to write a blog with the answered subquestions. Thursday we are going to present our project to the other students from our exchange group, and Friday Bart will go back to the Netherlands again. 

26.3.2014 Collecting data

It was raining day and me and Bart went to look a cheese production in Gorenja was, they have 40 dairy cows and they are also making cheese and milk products. We also went to a bigger farm, which had about 65 dairy cows and 150 cows in total. The farm is located near Lake Bled in Selo pri Bledu. In the morning we gathered all kinds of data which are the basis for our project. We'll post them in our next post..

Data collection

These tables are showing us the differences between Slovenian and the Netherlands.

1. Which country has the highest efficiency (grass to milk)?

The Netherlands produce more milk per ha. This is partly because of the relief of Slovenia and partly because of the inefficient way the hectares are separated in Slovenia. Most farmers have land on lots of different locations. In the Netherlands this is also a small problem, but it's better than in Slovenia. Slovenian cows are also less efficient in producing milk because they're also used for producing meat, in contrary to the Netherlands, where dairy cows are only used for milk. 

2. Which country produces the best quality milk?

The Netherlands produces milk with more Protein and fat in it, but Slovenian cows produce more Lactose. Normally Fat% and the Protein % should be related with a ratio around 5:4. When farmers sell their milk to a co-operation, which is normal in Slovenia and the Netherlands, lactose is rewarded with the most money, then protein and then fat. We found out that there is no huge difference between the qualities of the milk based on measuring tests, but we did not check the taste of milks side by side.

3. Which options does a farmer have, to make his farm more efficient?

At this time, more and more people want to drink milk. The first thing that people buy when they earn a little bit more money is luxurious food like milk and meat. In rising economies like China and Brazil the demand will increase really fast, so it's vital we increase the efficiency of producing milk. It's also important that the efficiency goes hand in hand with the animal well-being. When animals have stress, they produce less milk and their meat tastes different. There are some very simple investments  we can make to increase the animal well-being and the efficiency at the same time. For example machines which improve the hoof quality and the quality of the leather as well.

4. Is the amount of cows on one farm different between the two country's, and how does that influence the quality?

The amount of cows is different between Slovenia and the Netherlands. A usual farm in Slovenia has 4-8 cows, the standard farm in the Netherlands has around 80 cows. Farms in the Netherlands are much bigger than in Slovenia, even because of the land and farmers'  knowledge. The main reason for this difference is that there is flatter land instead of the mountains and hills in Slovenia.. Flatter land means that there are no huge mountains in the Netherlands. After we checked the tests of the milk, we found out that there is no huge difference between  the quality of the milk.

5. What impact does the relief have on the efficiency in the Netherlands and in Slovenia

We found out that the relief has a big influence on the efficiency. The Netherlands has a flat relief and that's why farmers have different equipment in Slovenia. Slovenian farmers use some special equipment for land cultivating in the mountains. The farmers from the Netherlands have bigger lands at one place, so they use bigger tractors which work faster than the tractors in Slovenia do. Because of the relief we have lots of smaller farms in Slovenia, but when they put the farms together, the efficiency is still a lot better in the Netherlands. 

A common farm in the Netherlands

and in Slovenia

Conclusion

I like Bart and Bart likes me. So we will never forget our exchange group. I hope that Dutch students are enjoying their stay in Slovenia, because we had a really great time at their place.

Let's party,
but farms in the Netherlands are still more efficient and bigger too than in Slovenia.