The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowSpruit
- Cattle, sheep or goats graze on pasture in the grazing season
Natuurboerderij Spruit is a dairy farm in Zegveld in the Groene Hart, where a family milks about 90 red-and-white and black-and-white cows and sells beef from its own herd in a farm shop.
In summer the cows graze the meadows and the heifers and young stock the outlying fields; in winter they lie on straw in the barn. No artificial fertiliser has gone on the land since 2000, and the soil is fed with the farm's own manure and compost instead. The grassland has been grassland for centuries, so it holds a wide mix of grasses and herbs, and the ditch banks, where around 50 kinds of flowers and plants grow, are managed so each can flower in its season. Mowing is timed to protect meadow birds. The beef comes from the farm's own cows and is sold frozen.
The farm shop is open on Friday afternoons from 13:30 to 17:00 and on Saturdays from 15:00 to 17:00. You can arrange for an order to be set aside, visitors are welcome to look round on other days by appointment, and tours are given during shop hours.
The female calves stay on as the future dairy herd, so the farm raises its own replacements.