Oudshoorn Dairy Farm in Westbeemster

Our farm

Bamestrameer

The Beemster was created in 1612 by draining the Bamestrameer lake and laying out the land in a grid of squares. This unique pattern of fields can still be seen today and is the reason the Beemster has been a World Heritage Site since 1999.

Oudshoorn Dairy Farm

Our farm is a typical family business. As well as dairy cows, heifers, young cattle and calves, we also have sheep, chickens, a rabbit, cats and a dog. Every year from early March, the sheep have their lambs.

From Nootdorp to the Beemster

Clemens grew up on his parents' dairy farm in Nootdorp, right in the middle of the Randstad. Sadly, there was no longer room to farm there. He did want to carry on with the cows, so he searched the whole of the Netherlands for a suitable farm. In 1996 the choice fell on the Beemster, because of its excellent clay soil. This is where we now run our farm together.

What was once a leap of faith is now our home.

In the past, everyone knew someone who lived on a farm. That’s how people naturally came into contact with farm life. Nowadays, we see the gap between farmers and the general public growing ever wider. That’s why we’re keen to show what life is like on a family farm today: where our food comes from and everything that goes into producing it.

The Oudshoorn family by the gate, with the cows behind them

Caring Dairy

For over ten years now, we have been participating in Caring Dairy, the sustainability programme run by our co-operative, Cono. It covers the entire supply chain, from cow to cheese.

The programme was updated in 2024. Since 2025, it has focused on four areas: animal welfare, climate, biodiversity, and farmers and society. Within these areas, each farmer chooses where their farm can make the most progress. We are committed to all four areas.

More about Caring Dairy

Working towards healthy soil

For us, Caring Dairy is more than a paper exercise. Since 2020 we have been part of the Beemster study group on regenerative farming, together with twelve local dairy farmers.

There, we’re investigating how to improve soil health using fewer or different fertilisers. Artificial fertiliser makes the grass grow rapidly. That’s the easy way out, but it creates an imbalance in the soil.

So we are trying a different approach. We sow herb-rich grass seed. It grows brilliantly on organic manure and copes better with drought. One of us uses solid manure, another uses slurry. One plot is given sea salt, while on another farm the cows get a little extra salt. We share our experiences so that we can learn from one another.

Why do we go to all this trouble? The healthier the soil, the healthier the grass, the healthier the manure and the cows. And the healthier the cows, the healthier the milk that goes to the cheese dairy.

The full story can be found at cono.nl.

View from the viewing room across the cowshed, with the cows at the feed fence

New cowshed

In 2017 we built a new cowshed with plenty of space, fresh air, light and comfort. Lovely for the cows, and it makes our work a real pleasure. Even before that, our doors were always open to anyone who wanted to take a look around the farm. That is what made us decide to create a meeting and viewing room in the new cowshed. We really enjoy showing people around and letting them see what life is like on our farm.

View the meeting room

Come on a farm tour

Take a look around the farmyard