Nij Bosma Zathe conducts innovative and multifunctional research for the dairy farming sector in the provinces of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe. The research is comprehensive and varied. Two examples are discussed here in detail. For more information, go to Modern dairy farm and Examples from practice.
Meadow Bird Centre Nij Bosma Zathe 
Skries 4U
The Meadow Bird Centre Nij Bosma Zathe was established in 2006 as part of Skries for You, a component of the Interreg project Farmers for Nature (www.farmersfornature.org). This project had a term of five years, from 2004 through 2008. Six countries participated: Scotland, Norway, England, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Each country focused on a specific aspect of nature and the agricultural landscape. In the province of Friesland, the focus was on farmers with meadow birds; the project was called Skries for You (Skries4U).
- Results of Skries4U.
- Complete report ‘Skries for You’, Results of Interreg-project Farmers for Nature in Fryslân 2004-2008, Altenburg & Wymenga, on behalf of the province
of Friesland, 2008 (A&W-rapport 1149).
News from the Meadow Bird Centre Nij Bosma Zathe [Dutch only]
Meadow bird manager
The management indicator calculates the consequences to farm animal nutrition and farm finances of one or more meadow bird management packages (postponed mowing dates, marsh parcel, refuge mounds). The aim of the programme is to quickly acquire insight into the farm-economic consequences of one or more meadow bird management packages on part of the grassland. Besides the reimbursement for the management package, the positive and negative consequences for production and animal nutrition were calculated. The figures were compared with a control situation without meadow bird management packages.
Black-tailed Godwit model (demo version)
Here you will find the Gruttomodel (Black-tailed Godwit model), developed by Alterra as part of the Skries4U project. The Gruttomodel calculates the effectiveness of 'mosaic management' for the survival of the chicks by entering the position of the nests and the grassland management for each parcel at various times. For the various times, the model indicates which proportion of the nests are then located ' safely', or whether there is sufficient land for the chicks.
By logging in with the users name weidevogels and the password grutto you can explore the demo version.
For more information about the Gruttomodel, go to www.alterra.nl (publications Alterra: Schotman and Melman).
Newsletter
If you are interested in receiving the newsletter of the meadow birds centre, you then can subscribe here. [in Dutch only]
Manure digestion
Click here for information about manure digestion.