Restoration of historic landscape and ecosystem of the Dutch peat-pastures

The Dutch polders often consist of wet, rich, organic soils, with high-diverse grassland vegetation. A particular original breed of cows, the "Blaarkopkoeien", which literally translates into 'blister-head cows', used to wander around the meadows, roaming the fields in quite an extensive fashion. The cow breed is strong and winter-hard. But under the influence of the intensification of cattle ranging in the last centuries, the Blaarkop gradually disappeared from the landscape and was replaced by other pedigrees. But these new breeds required the water table of the grassland to be lowered, and to increase the production a homogeneous grass-mat was introduced. Eventually, the meet production moved abroad and cows disappeared from the landscape more and more to give way to intensive cattle ranging and foreign imports. This entire process resulted in the disappearance of a typical Dutch landscape. The reversal of this process is one of the projects with which many impacts can be offset: landscape aesthetics will improve, biodiversity will return and increase, greenhouse gases will be reduced due to the rise of the water table and the reduction of the transport of the meet. All together a total win-win-win situation against less costs, resulting in tasty beef and healthy milk production.

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