Agricultural cycling tour East Knokke-Heist

Agricultural cycling tour east Knokke-Heist

Knokke-Heist is known as a coastal municipality, but there is still quite a bit of agriculture here. 55% of the municipality's area is used for agriculture. And there are still 92 companies involved in agricultural production.

We are in the polders, which typically consist of heavy clay soil, interspersed with sandy creek ridges. This is excellent for arable farming, such as grain, the typical polder potatoes, sugar beets, corn, and some flax. Since the soil is also highly suitable for grassland, you will find quite a few beef cattle farms as well.

We see all sorts of cows in the pastures. It's a colorful gathering. There are breeds specialized in milk production, such as the well-known black-and-white Holstein cows, others in meat production like the muscular Belgian Blue, and there are also specialties in Knokke-Heist like Limousin or Scottish Highlands that are more used for nature management.

Besides cows, you also see many horses in the fields; and we also spot sheep here and there that add color to and maintain the landscape.

And you don’t see them, but inside the barns, there are also pigs and chickens to be found in Knokke-Heist.

In addition to the production of crops and animals, many companies are also focused on tourism and farm sales.

In the municipality, we are strongly committed to biodiversity and landscape management. We provide subsidies for farmers who commit to protecting swallow nests and properly maintaining their pollarded willows, hedges, and fences. For about 20 years now, we have also been creating landscape business plans. Through this instrument, many farmers and rural residents have been supported with the planting of native trees, pollard trees, fruit trees, hedges, or a wood edge, nesting boxes, and ponds. On the bike map, you can recognize locations with biodiversity by the symbol (leaf) and the flower meadows by the symbol (flower).