View over the Sheepfold
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Location of audio: Post 7
One hundred years ago, many sheep grazed on the moors. Yet you will not always see sheep on the moors. The heathlands have long been a major source of income for the landowners. In addition to clay and gravel, farmers used the upper root layer of the ground below the heathers, the sod, to fertilize their fields and pastures. For the fertilization of one hectare of agricultural land, as many as nine to ten hectares of heathland were needed. To ensure that the sod of the heather was not gouged too deeply, farmers worked with a special sod hoe. The sod was mixed with straw and deposited in the sheep pens. The farmers used the heather sod for insulation for the farm and as fuel. After intensive grazing and many rounds of extracting the heather sod, the vegetation disappeared and the heath changed into drifting sand.
With the arrival of fertilizers and another farming system, the sheep slowly disappeared from the moor. In 1982, the chairman of the Gooi Nature Reserve, De Wit proclaimed that the foundation needed once again to have the sheep on the moors. Sheep would maintain the moorland vegetation. It was a company from Huizen, Slokker Real Estate that built the sheepfold on the Blaricum Heathland in 1990. A fatal fire in 2008 reduced the sheepfold to ashes. All sheep died. Fortunately Slokker Real Estate came to the rescue and built a new sheepfold.
Location next audio: Post 4
One hundred years ago, many sheep grazed on the moors. Yet you will not always see sheep on the moors. The heathlands have long been a major source of income for the landowners. In addition to clay and gravel, farmers used the upper root layer of the ground below the heathers, the sod, to fertilize their fields and pastures. For the fertilization of one hectare of agricultural land, as many as nine to ten hectares of heathland were needed. To ensure that the sod of the heather was not gouged too deeply, farmers worked with a special sod hoe. The sod was mixed with straw and deposited in the sheep pens. The farmers used the heather sod for insulation for the farm and as fuel. After intensive grazing and many rounds of extracting the heather sod, the vegetation disappeared and the heath changed into drifting sand.
With the arrival of fertilizers and another farming system, the sheep slowly disappeared from the moor. In 1982, the chairman of the Gooi Nature Reserve, De Wit proclaimed that the foundation needed once again to have the sheep on the moors. Sheep would maintain the moorland vegetation. It was a company from Huizen, Slokker Real Estate that built the sheepfold on the Blaricum Heathland in 1990. A fatal fire in 2008 reduced the sheepfold to ashes. All sheep died. Fortunately Slokker Real Estate came to the rescue and built a new sheepfold.
Location next audio: Post 4
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