Dutch family comes to Canada for its lifestyle and looks to buy dairy farm

Aug 26, 2022

TILLSONBURG — Kornelis Schaafsma sold off the family dairy farm in the Netherlands earlier this year. Now he’s searching for a replacement here in Ontario, and the pickings are slim.

There just aren’t very many dairy farms up for sale in the province, at any price. Nevermind that Schaafsma expects to pump the entire $5 million to $6 million he collected on the sale of his Dutch operation, plus take on substantial additional debt, in return for an Ontario farm with about half the production capacity of the one he left behind in Friesland.

He says he’s in the market for a 60- to 120-head milking operation — a family farm he and his wife Aafje can handle by themselves — with about 100 acres to support it. He estimates the cost of such an operation, including roughly 75 kg of milk quota, at between $7 million to $8 million in southwestern Ontario and perhaps $5.5 million in Eastern Ontario.

He previously milked between 140 and 150 cows at the farm where he grew up in Holland.

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Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?