He says: "At my farm of 210 hectares, I have 200 cows and 150 calves. This is fairly intensive for Uruguayan terms. The farm is now functioning well, although there have also been difficult years when the milk price was low. His farm is being characterized by grazing dairy which in Uruguay is usual. He also occasionally works with a closed system, if so required by climate and feed prices. He does foresee that in Uruguay dairy farming will move to a more closed system.
When he first came here he hardly knew the country and the language, but he had little trouble adapting. "The people are helpful and if I had questions about the use of fertilizer or seeding, there were always people willing to help me in this or advice me." He has built up the farm entirely in its own way. Henk still has regular contact with people of a regional corporation and exchanges knowledge with other farmers in groups of about 10 farmers from the neighborhood and they visit each other's farm once a year.
Now he is married to a Uruguayan and together they have one daughter. The first year they had much contact with another Dutchman who had a farm nearby, but later he moved to another region. Close to Young, many people of European descent have arrived, especially Germans.
Henk says: "It is not expensive to have staff, but it is sometimes difficult to keep them. Today, agriculture suffers more competition from the forestry industry in this region. "Some farms have not been set up properly, with too little money and little knowledge. Therefore, Henk imagines that there are still good opportunities for other European farmers in Uruguay.