• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • EYES ON ANIMALS – Watching out for their Welfare
  • English
  • Nederlands
  • Deutsch

Eyes on Animals

Watching out for their Welfare

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
DONATE
  • About us
    • What we do
    • Our team
    • Key Figures
    • Contact
  • News
    • Latest news
    • Good news
    • Bad news
    • Featured news
    • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Inspections
    • Farms
    • Markets
    • Transports
    • Slaughterhouses
    • Special projects
    • Other
  • Training
    • Police
    • Truck drivers
    • Poultry-catchers
    • Slaughter personnel
    • Training Material
    • Request a training
  • Industry Tips
    • Animal transport
      • Cattle
      • Pigs
      • Poultry
    • Slaughterhouses
      • Cattle
      • Pigs
      • Poultry
      • Ritual slaughter
    • Educational videos
  • Publications
    • In the media
      • Print
      • Television
      • Radio
      • Videos
    • Newsletters
    • Special reports
    • Training Material
    • Annual reviews
  • Future Vision
  • Help us
Home » Our inspections » Visit to one of the biggest goat milk farm in the Netherlands

Visit to one of the biggest goat milk farm in the Netherlands

May 29, 2017

On May 29th we made an unannounced visit to one of the biggest goat milk farms in the Netherlands: PeBe in Schaijk. Our impression of the stable was positive. There was a lot of daylight because the side windows were open and there were windows in the roof. This gave a lot of fresh air. The goats were kept on a thick layer of straw and were given quite a lot of space to walk around. There were also rotating-brushes for the goats to scratch themselves on. The goats made grateful use of them. The goats were milked in a huge carousel (170 stands). Because the goats get some food pellets during milking, they voluntarily enter the carousel. Watch a video here. There are bucks to cover the does naturally.

In order to keep the female goats’ producing milk, kids are born every year. These kids are removed from the mother goat immediately after birth. The female kids are largely reared to become milk producers. This is done at a specialized breeding company. The Peters brothers said that mortality is low (1.3%) because female kids are not mixed with kids from other companies. At the time of our visit, all the kids had left the company, except one kid that was probably born later.

The Peters brothers said that the male kids (bucks) were bought by dealers and taken to feedlots at the age of only 2-7 days. Unfortunately, they did not know where these feedlots are. They said that only the dealer knows. Eyes on Animals would like to visit some of these goat feedlots because mortality is often high there. This is because young bucks from different farms are put together (exchanges of germs) and the bucks often have a poor resistance because they are taken away from their mother right after birth and they are often not given colostrum (mother’s milk containing antibodies). Use of medicines made in goat fattening is also low. This is to reduce costs and prevent any drug residues from entering the meat but results in young bucks becoming sick and not being treated. We would like to thank Geert-Jan and Marcel for their hospitality and the opportunity to view their farm and ask a number of questions.

Eyes on Animals inspection at a goat farm
Goats at a milk farm

 

  • share 
  • tweet 
  • share 
  • save 
  • email 

Filed Under: farm, Our inspections Tagged With: animal welfare inspection, diary farm

Primary Sidebar

Search

Featured

hungry and exhausted calves on long distance transport

Calves not given any milk for over 30 hours

Investigations by Eyes on Animals, Ethical Farming Ireland and L214 reveal that young calves, … [Read More...] about Calves not given any milk for over 30 hours

Featured

A second slaughterhouse in Samsun (TR) interested in stunning

A positive video message from Asalet (Eyes on Animals Turkish trainer and inspector) in Samsun, … [Read More...] about A second slaughterhouse in Samsun (TR) interested in stunning

Our most recent newsletter

Dear friends and supporters,

As you know, we spend quite some time trying to reduce animal suffering and fear inside slaughterhouses by working directly with the plants.

This work is not always very glamorous. And most of the time we are not allowed to be too public about it.

 

Read more…

Subscribe to our newsletter

Eyes on Animals op Twitter

Twitter feed is not available at the moment.

ANBI

Footer

Donate with Paypal

Paypal Eyes on Animals
One-time donation:
Monthly donation:

Reading Material

  • In the Media
  • Newsletters
  • Special EonA reports
  • Legislative texts
  • ANBI

Our Amsterdam Office

Amsterdam House Hotel
Eyes on Animals main office is in downtown Amsterdam, at the Amsterdam House Hotel. The generous and warm-hearted hotel owner donated to Eyes on Animals, free of charge, a beautiful room where our inspectors can work, hold meetings and store their material.

Copyright © 2023 · Eyes on Animals | Website by Webkompaan