March 20, 2023

 

Netherlands' dairy cattle numbers stay almost unchanged last year

 

 

At 1.57 million, the Netherlands' dairy cattle herd remained virtually unchanged in 2022.

 

The herd was 7% smaller than five years earlier. The national pig herd decreased again last year. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported these figures on the basis of definitive figures from the 2022 Agricultural Census.

 

As of April 1, 2022, the Netherlands had 3.8 million head of cattle, 0.4% more than one year previously. Relative to 2017, it was down by 6%. Just as in 2021, dairy cows took up 41%. The municipalities of Sûdwest-Fryslân and De Fryske Marren had the largest dairy cow herds: 65.6 thousand and 35.5 thousand, respectively. The number of young bovines rose by 1.6% to 982,000.

 

In 2017, the Phosphate Reduction Plan came into force in the Dutch dairy farming sector. Farms had to dispose of dairy cows to stop herd growth. In 2018, the cattle herd fell below four million for the first time since 2013.

 

Last year, there were 14.7 thousand holdings with dairy cattle, 3% less than in 2021 and representing a decline by nearly 20% relative to 2017. The average herd size per holding increased to 107 head in 2022 from 103 on average in the previous year, while in 2017, the average dairy farm had 94 head.

 

In 2022, the largest holdings, with on average 151 head each, were located in Flevoland province, followed by the northern provinces of Groningen (128), Fryslân (125) and Drenthe (121).

 

Additionally, the number of veal calves decreased by 0.4% to slightly over one million, remaining unchanged from the previous year, but representing a 9% increase on 2017.

 

Almost half of all veal calves are kept in Gelderland province (478,000). In this province, the veal calf herd grew by 11% over a five-year period. A quarter of the veal calf herd could be found in the municipalities of Ede (29,000) and Barneveld (118,000).

 

Last year, the Netherlands' pig herd decreased by 1.6% year-on-year to a total of 11.3 million. The herd was 9% smaller than in 2017. It has shown several declines since 2020, partly as a result of a buy-out scheme for livestock farmers and the Subsidy Scheme for the Remediation of Pig Farms (SRV).

 

Relative to 2021, the number of pig farms fell by 4%, to just under 3.3 thousand. In a span of five years, the average number of pigs per holding grew by nearly 20%, to 3.4 thousand This was mainly due to the fact that relatively small holdings have stopped rearing pigs over the last few years.

 

Nearly half of the pig population are kept in Noord-Brabant. In this province, the number of holdings with pigs decreased by a third over a five-year period. The decrease in the total pig herd was slower at 13%. Last year, Land van Cuijk (682,000) and Venray (559,000) were the municipalities with the largest pig populations.

- Statistics Netherlands