Farmer from Kampereiland finds new challenges in Canada

Opportunities curtailed at home

YORKTON, Saskatchewan - A local grain farm now is home to new Dutch owners. The Netjes family of five arrived in Canada this spring, after having sold their farming operation in Kampen, Overijssel. Attempts to expand their 75-acre city-owned farm had not panned out.

Albert Netjes, his wife Gerrie and their three teenage children Colinda, Jan and Marieke bought the Yorkton property, about twenty times the size of their farm near Grafhorst. Half of the new Yorkton farm is bush land however. The former owner will help work the land for another year, allowing the Netjes family a chance to acclimatize in their adopted environment. The new immigrants intend to continue to grow rapeseed.

Netjes is part of a new breed of Dutch emigrants. Most of them are well- educated, master the English language, are financially independent, managed or owned property or businesses before and investigated their opportunities in Canada before emigrating. In the two years since their decision to leave, the Netjes family visited Canada twice to look at properties before buying the Saskatchewan farm. Much of their farm equipment and tools have been shipped to Yorkton in the meantime, easing the transition.