Ad van Velde is a dairy farmer in the northern part of the Netherlands. On his family farm, he milks 200 cows with some external labor. The farm breeds all of its own cattle. Ad has been farming since 1979. He’s an innovator who has been using milking robots since 1998. The dairy is moving toward being antibiotic-free and climate neutral, also quick to adopt new technology to improve milk production. His milk is delivered to NoorderlandMilk, a cooperative that Ad founded in 2006.
Ad grows grass, alfalfa, sugar beets and maize on loamy clay soil which requires drainage tile. The farm is intensively cooperative with crop farmers in the region, exchanging land and providing manure to other farmers. Ad is working on several projects with Wageningen University. He also owns DairyNext, a business development consultancy. He is also a partner in a dairy project in India.
He is a farmer with an international view and a very large network. Ad has been president of Global Dairy Farmers since 2017.