WORLD DAIRYING

Dutch dairy farmers are facing a dilemma when it comes to farm succession given the huge uncertainty in the Netherlands regarding the sustainability of the livestock sector there. Chris McCullough reports.

Future in dairying uncertain for young Dutch farmers

Many Dutch dairy farmers are planning for future generations to take over the running of the farms, but with major environmental legislation on the horizon, it is unclear whether this will lead to an enforced reduction in livestock numbers in the country.

Latest gures show there are about 1.6 million dairy cows in the Netherlands, which is about one-tenth of the human population, based on 16,000 dairy farms.

Overall, the Netherlands has more than 100m ca le, pigs and chickens which produce a lot of manure. is, is turn, when mixed with urine, can produce excess nitrogen which is harmful to the environment. e Dutch government is therefore under intense pressure to introduce radical changes to curb the production of nitrogen and other emissions. ere have been calls to reduce livestock numbers by up to 50% by 2030, but this has obviously not gone down well with dairy farmers.

Fi h-generation farmer Trea Doornenbal runs a dairy farm with her husband Harry at Appelscha, located in Friesland, one of the main dairy-producing regions in the Netherlands.

Together they have 21-year-old twins, Claudia and Jeroen, who would like to continue the family tradition of milking cows there. However, due to the uncertainty surrounding livestock numbers and emissions legislation, the future is not quite clear.

Taking each day with a ‘gewoon doordoen’ a itude, which translates to ‘just keep going’, the family can only hope their farm can remain viable to operate as a business.

Land

e family owns 128 hectares (316 acres), with a further 20ha (40 acres) rented and another 12ha (30 acres) of grassland managed under nature restriction.

Trea adds that four ageing, but reliable, robots milk the herd and investing money in new equipment at the moment could be a risk.

She says: “ ere are 230 cows in the milking herd with another 120 youngstock. e main breed is Holstein Friesian, but we also have some cross-bred Fleckviehs in the mix, as well as Montbeliarde, Brown Swiss, Jersey and Viking Red cows.

“Our herd has an average milk yield of 30 litres per cow per day, produced at 4.46% bu erfat and 3.66% protein. e milking cows are fed indoors, but the dry cows and youngstock graze outside from April to October.

“We separate the milking cows into groups of high yielding ca le and low yielding ca le, with a di erent feed ration formulated for each group. Usually the cows are arti cially inseminated. e youngstock get inseminated twice and then they join the group with the bull.”

Labour on-farm is supplied by Trea and Harry and at the weekend by their two children and Harry’s father.

Milk is sold to the Friesland Campina co-operative and the family receives 37.75 euro cents per litre (29.97ppl).

Trea says: “ e milk price is not too bad here, but it is strange we still have the same milk price as we did

A number of different breeds are included in the dairy herd. Trea Doornenbal hopes some day to hand the farm over to the younger generation.

back in 1990. As a result, you get a lot of economies of scale here.

“Back in 2008 we invested in four Lely A3 robotic milkers to help with labour availability and costs. Even though some parts have been replaced on them over the years, the robots have proved to be a very worthwhile investment.

“Hopefully, they can last for a good few years to come.

“We use a tractor and Trioliet feed mixer to feed the cows with a mix of silage, corn, wheat yeast

The main milking herd of 230 cows is housed and fed a mixed ration.

concentrate, brewers grains and concentrates. The overall goal is to work less by using more technology. If things are getting too old or require endless maintenance, we replace them.

Policies

“We really want our kids to take over the farm, but the policies are not clear enough to make good plans, so we say ‘gewoon doordoen’.

“We want a farm with healthy cows and less work, but the future is not so clear.”

Trea says reducing nitrogen and phosphates features heavily in government proposals, but at this stage detail about how and when is scant.

She says: “Government elections have just been held, but the nal policies are not ready yet. One political party in government wants to halve the livestock numbers to reduce emissions.

“ ere is a great deal of uncertainty hanging over the industry, meaning it is risky to invest in machinery or equipment and it also means we cannot easily make too many plans for the future yet.”

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