The board

Jan Schilder

Chair

I am Jan Schilder and I live with my wife Coby in Heerhugowaard. We have 4 children who have all flown out, and now 2 grandchildren.

I have been working as an aAaWeeks analyst in dairy farming since 1990, and because I travel a lot for my work, Coby is often the farmer's wife.

We bought the first Blue du Maine sheep in 1987 from Henk van Ree, one of the early pioneers of the breed in the Netherlands. In our herd you will now find bloodlines from the Netherlands, Belgium, France and England.

Hopefully we will see each other soon at a sheep event.

Dorien Verkleij

Secretary

My name is Dorien Verkleij and I live in Leiderdorp, where I was born, together with my husband Timo. We have 3 children between the ages of 26 and 22.

We have had a dairy and breeding farm with a cheese dairy and a Texel breeding farm. The dairy farm has now been sold and we have moved to live in one of our monumental barns surrounded by 2 hectares of land. Since 2015 we have kept Bleu du Maine on this, the basis of which was obtained at Jan Schilder. We have exchanged the Texels for the Bleu du Maine because it is easier to lamb, but while retaining its luxury and type and because of its intelligent appearance. We have not regretted this choice for a day.

In 2019 I joined the board as secretary. So if you have any questions or need information, you can always call or email me.

Johan van Ginkel

Treasurer

My name is Johan van Ginkel living in Sellingen, Groningen, married to Pernell and we have 3 children.

Always been a dairy farmer by profession, but stopped about 3 years ago.

Cow breeding has always been my passion (that is why I have known Jan Schilder for years), but now that that is over, I see breeding in the Bleu du Maine as a nice alternative to have fun. 

Breeding committee

Johan van Ginkel

Last year I was added to the breeding committee. The exterior assessment of animals has always had my interest. For example, I have participated in cattle judging competitions for years, I have been a judge of the dwarf goats that I also breed myself for almost 40 years and I also do something in this area in the beef cattle. As far as I'm concerned, Bleu du Maine sheep also fit well in this list.

Ad van Zandwijk

Hello

I'm Ad from Zandwijk en ik woon in Hellouw. Ik werk als vruchtbaarheidspecialist bij CRV. Ik fok al Bleu’s sinds 1991. Begonnen met een ram en al snel  een koppel echte Bleu’s gekocht. Daarna in de foktechnische commissie gekomen en later bestuurslid geweest. Nu nog steeds inspecteur voor het stamboek.

Jan Schouten

My wife Maria and I have been keeping Bleu du Maine sheep in Oosterblok (NH) since 1998. When I became a member of the association, I was soon asked to be a board member and I took care of the secretariat of the association for 2 terms. As a member of an association, it is good to also commit yourself to the members.

In my working life I held various positions at the Ministry of LNV and later EZ. For the past twenty years, my position has been a corporate finance specialist. In that position I advised the ministry and municipalities on requested financing expansion in almost all sectors of agriculture and fisheries.

I am now retired. When registering the sheep threatened to become a problem, I signed up in 2019 to register animals in the studbook and since then I have been part of the breeding committee.