Brabant Agrifood plume for 'pioneering farmers' Lamers

Eric and Karin Lamers of De Schutkooi in Vortum-Mullem received the Brabant Agrifoodpluim on Friday, Dec. 20, from the hands of deputy (and fellow villager) Marc Oudenhoven, for the pioneering way they have been connecting people, nature and care for 25 years.

On a cold morning in November, Eric Lamers walks to a wild pasture where about ten cows are running. One of them he and a colleague are going to try to catch, because it is in heat and therefore restless. 'I'm probably the only farmer who lets his cows run outside right now,' Lamers says nonchalantly. 'But because of that, I don't have to feed them and I don't have to haul away manure. It doesn't really cost anything, except the time to catch one once in a while.'

Pioneer

That "cow approach" fits right in with his philosophy: room for nature. Next year, Eric Lamers will celebrate his 25th anniversary as an organic farmer. He was a pioneer at the time. Not everyone understands his approach, he says. 'On a hundred acres of land I milk less milk than some farmers with much less land. But how much government land will they have left in five years?' In recent years, fortunately, he sees this realization coming more and more widely. 'First with land management organizations such as Staatsbosbeheer, Brabants Landschap and Natuurmonumenten. Later the province and municipalities followed suit. And soon large investment companies will also ask how sustainable you actually are as a company.'

Vogelakker

Nature gets all the space it needs here. Downright lyrical is Eric Lamers himself about the so-called bird field. 'There we have sown a strip with nice grass clover and leave several strips with flowers. In the fall it just looks like a shrubbery, but when I walk there now, a falcon hovers above it, a pheasant comes out and I see deer scurrying away. All those animals have shelter and good food there. To me that is the most valuable agricultural steering element we have here. It really works.

Socially accepted

When he gets curious farmers visiting, Eric Lamers always reminds them of two things. One: make sure you get and stay socially accepted. And two: make sure you write black figures. How he does both himself? Connecting with walking and cycling passersby, he makes thanks to a coffee house. In 'De Hooiberg' (a building in the shape of a haystack) employees provide daycare for people with mental disabilities. And he owes those black figures to the milk yield, but also to the rental of tiny houses. And, of course, to managing and maintaining a hundred acres of land on behalf of Staatsbosbeheer, Brabants Landschap and the province of North Brabant.

Man, nature and care

What Eric Lamers enjoys most is connecting all those elements. Tomorrow, for example, there will be people coming to stay, who will find a card with their bedding: 'This wash has been provided for you by the participants of the day care. We wish you a pleasant stay.' The same participants make the cookies for the catering, mow the butterfly trail, take branches from the meadow and pollard the willows. And soon there will be pools. 'To keep making connections between people, nature and care: that's what I enjoy doing.'

Pictured from left to right: Marc Oudenhoven, Karin Lamers and Eric Lamers