Geurt Kets runs a dairy farm in Rottevalle with his family. The farm consists of 130 dairy cows, 60 young cattle and 35 calves. Geurt owns about 100 hectares, including 28 hectares of maize field and about 70 hectares of grassland. Part of the grassland is used for grazing. The barn houses a 2 x 15 side-by-side milking parlour. In which the cows give an average of 8,000 litres per year. For many years, Geurt has been using Spinder barn equipment. In 1979, the barn was rebuilt due to a fire on the farm. The feed fronts installed then still serve as feed fronts in the dairy barn after 46 years.
"Spinder is in our area, is reliable and delivers a good product. We have been using Spinder products for a long time, which has always pleased us. That is why Spinder stands out for us" says Geurt Kets. So in October 2024, Geurt chose to install Meadow Vista mattresses in both the dairy barn and part of the calf barns.
Kets' calves are kept in straw pens until they are four months old. Then they are moved to a barn with freestall dividers where they learn to lie in a cubicle using the Meadow Vista mattresses. "The calves move from the straw pens into the pen with Meadow mattresses. It is important that calves learn to lie in cubicles. Before we had the Meadow Vista mattresses, they would sometimes lie down on the slatted floors. Because the Meadow Vista mattresses are soft and flexible, they find their spot in the cubicles faster. Once they've laid on it, they keep coming back to it".
Besides helping the calves learn to lie in a cublicle faster, Geurt says the mattresses also have another benefit. "Since we have been using the Meadow Vista mattresses, the calves suffer less from thick heels and they grow better than before. They are doing super well on the mattresses!".
There are also Meadow Vista mattresses in the dairy barn. "Previously, there were no mattresses in the cubicles, so we used a thicker layer of bedding. Then we were spending a lot of money on bedding. Now we easily sweep the cubicles and blow new layer of bedding over them with our bedding machine. The mattresses allow us to use less bedding, which saves us a lot of money," says Geurt Kets.
