concept design
winning concept - thinktank Grondverbond 2022
How to make the biological dairyfarm 'de Beekhoeve' more nature inclusive, educate the customers of the farm shop without impeding business as usual? With this issue, our project group of the Grondverbond Thinktank started a 5 month design process. Throughout workshops and lectures with ecologists, local policy makers and extensive conversations with owners and farmers Koos and Monique we understood that a healthy soil was the start of everything; so that is where we started too.​
In order to produce healthy milk, you need healthy cows and healthy cows live in healthy surroundings with all the nutrients they need. Cows know very well what nutrients they need in order to stay healthy, but unfortunately, not all the nutrients are in reach, which can, in the long term, make cows sick and stimulate the use of, for example, antibiotics.​
Our project group designed a cow pharmacy, a selection of indigenous trees and shrubs that cows need and know when to find in order to keep healthy as they contain important nutrients that, for example, help with inflammation or other ailments. At the same time you enhance biodiversity by providing shelter and food for wildlife. This concept was seen as the most succesfull and is executed in the beginning of 2022. After a couple of years to grow, the cows of farm de Beekhoeve will be able to enjoy their extended diet.