In the Frisian Langezwaag, Ynze Tiesema runs a dairy farm with 110 cows together with his father. When the company was purchased fifteen years ago, it did not have ideal conditions for water quality: the groundwater was unstable, the pressure was low, the water was collected in a buffer vessel and eventually flowed to concrete tanks. In addition, the cows go into the pasture in summer, which means that the water outside is exposed to direct sunlight, while there is less flow inside. The result was that the pipes regularly silted up. Since February 2019, Ynze has been using the Watter system and the water quality is perfect. As a result, health and milk production have increased rapidly since then.
Before Ynze started working with the Watter system, he had tried various ways to improve water quality. However, always without result: the mess quickly returned. After Watter passed by during a lecture at the Agrarian Youth Contact, he became interested. After reading user experiences, he was decided to invest.
“I want to make sure the water is good. After all, it is 67% of the ration. I am convinced that better water is good for the health and fertility of the cows.“
Biofilm disappeared, production increased
The installation of the system immediately had a visible effect on the company. Within a week the biofilm had disappeared in the pipes. Independent studies by Eurofins showed that the bacterial count dropped from 40,000 to 100 CFU / ml. At the same time, production has increased 700 kg per cow, while the protein and fat contents have remained the same without other changes on the farm. As a result, Tiesema has earned back the investment of the system within six months.
Ynze sees the improvement every day: “The cows first just dipped their tongue in the water and now they dive in with their whole mouth.” He is happy that the problems with his water quality are a thing of the past: “Farmers talk about water, but little is done with it. Clean water is not only important for improving production, but also for the health of young stock and dry cows.” His advice to all his colleagues is, therefore: “Take water samples from the drinking trough and take action based on the result!”.
