At SVgroup, we believe that the strength of our organisation lies not only in our products and services, but also in our employees. That is why we like to take you on a behind-the-scenes look, in which we let colleagues talk about their hobbies and working at SVgroup. This time, we let Bert Sanderman, field sales representative at SVgroup, have his say. He has been working for and with the Schuitemaker brand for more than 30 years and has now been working for SVgroup for five years. He was born and raised in Rijssen and together with his wife Willy, he has two children and now also a couple of grandchildren. Bert’s great passion in his spare time is keeping and breeding sheep. He started with three Blue Texels (a sheep species) in 2000 and Bert has now been devoted to this hobby for 23 years.
When one sheep crosses the dam…
Since childhood, Bert had an affinity with agriculture and this is where the love for his hobby, but also for his profession, started. ‘Every day I deal with agriculture. I am not of farming descent, but from childhood I have always worked in agriculture and been involved in it’. Bert started out by keeping a few suckler cows, but soon found out that this was not easy to combine with field work.
‘It actually came about a bit by accident, I wasn’t a sheep man at all, but I bought three sheep to see how that went.’ With a big smile on his face, he continues: ‘Those sheep were lambing themselves and then I thought: yes! That’s something for me. And this hobby soon got out of hand’. Bert now has 18 ewes, 1 ram and has added 32 lambs this lambing season.
Keeping sheep involves several facets; you think about how and what to feed the sheep, when to feed the ram to the ewes, when to give birth to the lambs, when to shear the sheep, the daily check if all the sheep are okay or if a vet is needed and so on. Every year I also sort out the lambs, the rams go away anyway and I keep a number of ewes myself. I also get rid of some older sheep’. The new ewes lamb for the first time when they are two years old.
Cut and sheared
In May and June, Bert shears his sheep himself. ‘I usually shear a few sheep in a day, then you’ll have finished the tubers by evening,’ says Sanderman. He divides shearing the sheep over a number of days. ‘If you shear a couple of sheep, this definitely takes a whole day, usually I divide it over two Saturdays’.
House, tree and sheep
Bert keeps his sheep on a piece of his own land and a piece of rented land with a shed attached. Bert lives in a normal residential area, but at lambing time he brings the ewes to his house about three days before they are due to lamb. ‘I have a shed in the garden where I can have a few sheep stay temporarily just fine, without bothering the neighbours,’ he laughs.
The shed in Bert’s garden is also equipped with technical gadgets; a camera hangs at the top so he can always see how his sheep are doing, whether they are lambing and what the animals’ behaviour is like. ‘Even at night from my bed I can keep an eye on it,’ says Sanderman.
Relaxed and pure enjoyment
‘I often spend all day at the office or in the car. The daily bike ride to the sheep is then a nice relaxation after work’. He continues: ‘Sometimes I only spend 10 to 15 minutes there and sometimes I sit on the fence for an hour watching the sheep and lambs, I really enjoy that’. According to Bert, this is a nice change and goes well with his work as a salesman. ‘I have the convenience of freedom from the work I do, so I can keep doing this hobby. I can combine this very nicely with my work’.
Bert would like to enjoy his sheep and be involved with his hobby for many more years. ‘Look, I can’t look into the future, but if health permits, I would like to keep doing this for a while longer,’ says Bert. ‘If a lamb is rejected now, I can’t raise it by bottle because I simply don’t have the time. When I have more time in the future, I could do this myself, for example.’
A little nod to SVgroup
The sheep’s stall houses are made from steel plates from the factory at SVgroup. ‘What’s funny is that the farrowing pens in the stable are made from steel plates from the factory, a colleague welded them together for me,’ Sanderman said.
Working at SVgroup
Bert’s career within SVgroup began in 1989 in the inside sales department and fairly soon after that he moved to the field sales department. He has been in several regions in the Netherlands and is now mainly focused on central and northern Netherlands. ‘I have always enjoyed working here and I still feel right at home here,’ says Bert. Because he has worked here for some time, he has experienced the company in different phases and forms. From a small family business to the growing larger organisation of today.Incidentally, Bert thinks the company is far from outgrown and still has a lot of potential for the years to come. ‘It’s great to see that all brands reinforce each other, all brands benefit from this too’. Bert continues; ‘I have full confidence in the future for SVgroup.’
‘The thing I like most about my job is the customer contact with dealers and end users, so that you work with the dealer to explain and defend the various possibilities with our products to the end user.’ The work as a field salesman is diverse, you are always busy maintaining contacts and trying to translate the customers’ wishes as well as possible into the machines SVgroup supplies. ■
