Producer Spotlight 
From Holland to Texas with a hard working family 
The de Boer Family at their New Benninger Dairy in De Kalb, TX. (Wanda not pictured)  By Scott Wilson, MBA Regional Sales Manager Diamond V The sun beat town on a silage field in southeastern Oklahoma. The area was headed for one month of consecutive 100-plus degree temperatures with no significant rainfall in sight. The drought, which gripped most of Texas, had crept into the last moderate zone in the state and is now affecting the bordering states of Oklahoma and Arkansas. Many dairymen and ranchers are scrambling to find feed to sustain their herds. The drought we are facing this year has contributed to record feed and fuel cost. At a time when it is difficult for most dairymen to sustain their own cows, it is truly amazing to find someone who has managed to find a way to prosper primarily through his desire to grow and maintain a family business. Three years ago Dirk de Boer wanted to expand his dairy operation. During a time when it seemed that most dairymen were opting to grow their herd rather than vertically integrate into growing their inputs, he made the decision to purchase farmland and grow feed rather than to invest in another dairy site. His intuition led him in the right direction. This year he has managed to raise plenty of feed not only for his own operation, but also enough to help other dairymen and ranchers in the area. The de Boer family raises corn silage, baylage, soybeans and wheat. They have worked hard to improve the land by strategically adding irrigation systems and other improvements to help maximize production. Dirk credits his decision making to his intuition. With his goal building a dairy that could be grown into a family business to pass on to future generations, he began looking for a place to get started. When searching for a dairy site 16 years ago, he could have settled in central Texas, which at that time was taking over the Texas dairy industry as the number one area in the state to milk cows. However, the green grass in Northeast Texas reminded him of the Netherlands, where he and his brothers grew up. His intuition told him to build his dairy there. While central Texas is traditionally blessed with lower humidity and higher production, Northeast Texas offered much less competition for forage and reasonable crop acreage near by. His first year in Northeast Texas was a challenge. After a really wet winter in 1996, Dirk's intuition and appreciation for cattle welfare told him that free stalls were the way to go. He did not like dairying in an open muddy lot. That's when he cleared the timber from his land and used the revenue from the trees to finance his free-stall barn. The de Boer family has been able to grow from around 300 to 1500 cows over the past 16 years. Dirk de Boer and his wife Wanda run the New Benninger Dairy with their sons, Joris (13), Piet (11) and Dirk (9). The New Benninger Dairy is a family business, and on any given day, it's easy to see why. The whole family works together towards the success of the dairy. On this particular day, they were all harvesting silage. While most young boys today are more interested in electronic games and television shows, the de Boer boys seem to know that they have a job to do. They are knowledgeable, not only about how to harvest the silage, but also about the machinery and parts needed to get the job done. Piet de Boer was trusted to find and purchase parts which he then used to help fix the silage wagon that his brothers Joris and Dirk were operating. Piet could tell you about every tractor in the operation. Wanda de Boer was at the field, under a tent monitoring the scales and tracking yields as well as keeping her crew fed and watered. Dirk believes that one of the problems with the dairy industry moving toward larger, more automated operations is that new generations aren't getting the experience, knowledge or "drive" to run and succeed at the family business. He grew up in the Netherlands in a very competitive environment with other dairy families. When at school or with friends, bragging rights were about cattle, milk production and crop yields rather than about professional sports games or video game scores. When he and his brothers ran the family dairy in the Netherlands, they raised show quality cattle and routinely hit the show circuit with up to 20 of their herd of 200. They knew the breeding histories of all their cattle back many generations. "Young kids used to be able to go in the parlor and milk cows, but with the larger, automated farms they have lost some of these opportunities," said Dirk. You would not know this by watching Dirk's boys on this day. They are the harvest crew in this family operation and already seem to know the importance of learning the family business. It is obvious that Dirk de Boer is instilling the values and knowledge he believes are necessary for his sons to develop the intuition to keep the family business growing and succeeding. Back to main page | 
