Butler and Mitchell counties to woo dairy farmers from the Netherlands

Residents in Butler and Mitchell counties will be hosting dairy farmers from the Netherlands next month in an attempt to bring some of them to Iowa to live. Harlan Bisbee is a member of the Stacyville Economic Development Group, and he says they have been considering this for some time now. He says it started about a year and a half ago and after several meetings they decided it was a good thing to do. Bisbee says there are simply too many dairy farmers in the Netherlands right now, which is why he is hopeful some will decide to come to Iowa.He says the government is trying to downsize the dairies and those families are looking for a place to go.The group of about 20 Dutch farmers will be in Iowa during the first week of June. Bisbee says they will give the farmers the grand tour of not only Stacyville, but all of north-central Iowa. According to statistics from the Dutch National Extension Service, dairy farmers are leaving the Netherlands at a rate of five per day. The service estimates nearly seven-thousand Dutch dairy farmers will resettle in the U-S or other countries over the next ten years.