We got off to a good start today. Of course, we were late to visit the dairy farmer we met at the Church sale. He was very friendly, and had good English, because he's both a diary farmer and a breeder ( a "fokker") and part of what he does is travel North America to shop for bull sperm. One main cow that we have in the States is what is known as a Freisen-Holstein (if you're Dutch) or a Holstein-Freisen if you are not. Seems like we've been breeding them for stout chests or something like that, and he finds it's good to introduce some hale and hearty blood-lines back into the herd here. At least that's what I think he said.
Anyway, Jason does sculptural work with among other things an agricultural bent, and what he wants to work on here is a site-specific piece riffing off the landscape here (and the prevalent irrigation ditches) possibly involving a cow. He was very interested in having a chance to pick Arend's brain about the logistics of working with a cow in his proposed piece, and both of us were excited to have a chance to visit and see a real live dairy farm.
After coffee with Arend and his wife, we were much more knowledgeable about lots of things. Did you know Holland has as many people as Canada has cows, and Canada has as many cows as Holland has people? (Again, my Dutch, while improving, may require external verification for accuracy before press time). The farm, as are most in the Netherlands, is a family farm, started by his Grandfather, with 10 cows. His dad grew the operation to 50, and Arend, since 1974 has expanded to 150. What really got me was when he said he knew the name of not only every cow they had going, but of the mother and grandmother of each one. I guess it's a little like being the principal of a small high school for 30 years, but still it gave me a good feeling for them.
We got a full tour, and even got to meet one of his son-in-laws Gan, who showed us his pigeons, which he enters into timed competition. Each one that races has an RFID bracelet that allows for a computerized recording of the time of return. We even talked about putting GPS on pigeons, and it seems that while some fly straight home, some follow traffic patterns (including the roundabouts). Gan said those aren't the ones you want for your racing team, but I confess that I feel a bit of kinship with the periapatetic ones...
As we left, I asked Arend if he would loan me something for the still lifes I am working on. I asked specifically for one of his cattle show trophies and he gave me one from 1974 that he had won (and his father had won on a previous year).
When we got back I had a sandwich and spent the rest of the afternoon shooting. All in all it was a good day. Plus Mary arrived in the morning while we were at the farm. She doesn't eat meat and is way into birds and it's good to have her here.
