Hickory Gables Dairy, owned by Bastiaan (Bas) and Laura de Jong, along with their 3 children Seth, Maggie, and Luke are not your typical dairy farmers. Bas is the only farmer to give me a hug and say a prayer of blessing after I finished his QLF liquid feed set up for his cows. His secret sauce to building a successful dairy is his passionate care for his family, employees, and his cows. Faith comes first in the de Jong household followed by his daily commitment to make it as healthy and comfortable environment as possible for his family, employees, and especially his cows. The respect Bas gives his employees is second to none and it shows in their care for the animals as well.
His passion for learning is also very evident. He cherishes every opportunity to learn from the trusted partners he has chosen to work with and listens intently as they discuss future needs and plans for his farm. When asked why he started feeding QLF he without hesitation talks about the need for more sugar in his higher forage diets to help drive NDF digestibility and provide a safer energy source than pushing more starch. Moving to Michigan from Tulare County in California in 2000 he was surprised at all the cloudy days in Michigan. He was used to feeding a high-sugar diet there that included citrus pulp, almond hulls, etc. that was more available in that market. They have grown from 150 cows in 2000 to milking 2500 cows today with another 2300 heifers on the farm as well.
Recently Hickory Gables received a load of QLF that was very significant to me. They took the load of QLF that put me over 1,000,000 tons for my career. While visiting that day Bas commented that, “Every time a QLF truck pulls in it’s like bringing a load of sunshine to our farm.” He likes that the cane molasses absorbs a lot of sunshine to produce the energy-rich molasses from the raw sugar cane. One of the reasons he started on QLF is he understands the value of sugar to help stimulate better fiber digestion which allows him to feed more home-grown forages. His nutritionist, Greg Zuver from Caledonia Farmers Elevator brought the concept to him as he likes what it does in the diet to bring consistency to the ration. Along with tying up fines to reduce sorting it also provides palatability to the ration and adds more energy density to the diet, which is especially important in the early lactation cows helping to drive peak milk.
Hickory Gables currently uses 4 different QLF products on the farm. A lactation liquid, 2 different heifer complete supplements, one for smaller and one for larger heifers as he likes the idea of providing the vitamins and minerals through the QLF liquid feed to ensure more consistent delivery to his heifers. He also recently started using one of QLF’s agronomy products called Boost on his alfalfa to help drive better tonnage and improve the digestibility of his haylage. He strives to capitalize on the value of each acre of land to get the best return possible. He is always looking to find ways to improve performance per unit, whether that be soils, cows, or employees.
When asked who would you recommend to use QLF, his response was anyone with dairy cows, especially those farms wanting to feed a higher forage diet. He loves the service he gets from QLF and the consistency of our molasses-based products and what they do for his cows. As Bas says each day is a gift from God and he will continue to strive to be a better father, husband, and dairyman. Both Bas and Laura are committed to having a successful farm to pass on to the next generation and I am happy to be a small part of their success. If all my farms were as passionate about bringing some “sunshine to their farm” through QLF as Hickory Gables, I would be closer to 2 million tons!