We started off the day super early and actually on time for once, pulling out of the hotel by 6:30am. We left Leuven for the last time and headed to the Mechelse Veilingen (Vegetable Auction) where Luc Peeters, head of external relations, gave us the overview of their company. Mechelse Veilingen  is a grower cooperative where vegetable growers bring their produce and buyers compete in the online markets to purchase fruits and vegetable by the crate or pallet. It reminded us of the Chicago Board of Trade.

We ate lunch along the road at McDonald’s on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands because we were in a hurry to head to Broeder’s Beef Production Farm in the Netherlands. Henk Broeders is the founder and owner of this 1000 head beef farm with a process that is extremely unique from any farm in the United States. Henk purchases the baby calves from a producer in France and receives them when they are 10-12 months old. He then feeds them for another 10-12 months until they are finished and ready for slaughter. The cattle there are very different as well. They are extremely lean, very muscular, and not the type of steers we are used to seeing at home in pastures. We got to see all aspects of his farm, from the new babies to cattle that were almost finished with their time at Broeders. We even got to see the herd bull and some of the older female cows in the pasture. Broeders have created a special niche market for themselves and created a brand called “Bief Select.”  They are able to capture premium prices for this quality of meat because they produce hormone-free beef. Henk was Dutch and hardly spoke any English so our Dutch guide and translator, Niek, joined us today. He will be with us through the rest of the weekend in Holland. Henk was such a sweet man and I think all of the students enjoyed the tour at his farm!

We finished our day by going to GreenQ Horticulture Expertise Group where we learned a lot about how to run large-scale operation greenhouses while also keeping sustainability and energy saving techniques in mind. We then got to suit up and take a tour in the greenhouses, specifically the gerbera daisy house and the tomato house.

We finally got to our new home in Leiden, Hotel Nieuw Minerva, checked into our rooms, split up, explored the new town, and went to eat.