Wilfried van Straalen
Wilfried van Straalen has been a ruminant researcher at Schothorst Feed Research for over thirty years. “I was still working on my PhD in Wageningen when Piet van der Aar invited me to join Schothorst,” he recalls. “The position immediately appealed to me, so I started in Lelystad. As a result, the completion of my dissertation took a bit longer than I had planned.”
More Collaboration, More Results
In the beginning, Wilfried found it exciting to visit clients: “I would drive around with a map of the Netherlands on my lap, heading to cooperatives or farmers’ study clubs all over the country. Initially, as a ‘young rookie,’ I was met with some skepticism, but I quickly built a trusting relationship through my knowledge of nutrition.” He views those visits as extremely valuable: “You get to know the companies and their farming communities, and you build genuine relationships. This gives you a good understanding of the sector and the knowledge needs of the animal feed industry and the farmers.”
Wilfried frequently gave presentations at CLO days, where there was great interest in the DVE/OEB system. In Lelystad, excursions and tours were also organized for various target groups, although this has decreased recently due to busy schedules.
In the early years, there were only two ruminant researchers at SFR; now there are six. At that time, only two trials per year were conducted for dairy cattle, whereas now this has grown to six to eight trials annually. Wilfried notes that Schothorst has experienced significant growth in every aspect and that the organizational structure has evolved. “When I started, the research was structured like a matrix, with animal categories (ruminants, pigs, poultry) in ‘columns’ and disciplines (digestive physiology, animal health) in ‘rows.’ Later, we abandoned this ‘silo mentality’ because there are many interconnections between disciplines, and processes are often similar across different species.”
With the independence of Schothorst as a private limited company, many changes occurred: “We started collaborating with the VVM, which brought the private sector into the fold, and we adopted the VVM training program. For a long time, the private and cooperative animal feed sectors in the Netherlands were strictly separated, but this was not sustainable in the long run. Scale expansion and mergers made it necessary for us to adapt and prepare for the future,” Wilfried explains. SFR became more commercial: “We began attracting more clients from abroad and organizing national and international training sessions and courses. As a research company, we offer research facilities but are increasingly providing services and products, which we now package with maintenance contracts. This creates stable revenue and long-term relationships with customers.” Additionally, SFR collaborates in many public-private partnership projects with other research institutions and companies in the sector. “We gather and generate knowledge, but we are also committed to implementing our expertise in the field,” emphasizes Wilfried.
After years as a ruminants cluster leader, Wilfried now primarily works as a consultant for feed companies and is responsible for implementing SFR knowledge within the feed industry. “I still enjoy staying closely connected to the field, bringing in my own ideas and developing them,” he says. “As a consultant, I can work very independently here, while staying in close contact with all my colleagues, as well as our clients and partners both domestically and internationally.”
