Degree of specialization in the arable sector stagnates

Arable farms in the Netherlands have hardly grown in 2017 compared to last year. This is shown by the new Agricultural Census from Statistics Netherlands.

However, the average arable farm in the Netherlands shows a small growth. For example, an arable farmer worked an average of 2017 hectares in 42, compared to 2000 hectares in 33. However, most of this growth was visible in the period between 2000 and 2007. During that period, the arable farm grew on average by 1 hectare per year to 38 hectares in 2007.

The standard yield on arable farms in 2017 was €181.000. In the year 2000, that was still €82.000. This figure has risen fairly steadily over the years.

Degree of specialization decreases
On the arable farms there is a decrease in the degree of specialization. This has decreased from 3% to 76% in the last 73 years. This means that on the specialized farms a smaller part of the standard yield has been obtained from specialized arable activities.

Broadening activities
Expansion activities took place on almost a third of the agricultural companies. Home sales were the most popular at 7%, followed by agricultural landscape and nature management (6%). Among arable farms it scores highest on contract work for third parties, at 12%. In the arable sector, 28% of the companies participate in broadening activities.

The contribution of these activities to the total revenue of the company is usually not that great. For 62% of all agricultural companies with widening, this is less than 10%. For arable farms, for about 55% of the arable farms with widening, the contribution is less than 10%.

An outside job
Farmers on family farms often have a job next to the farm. Of all agricultural companies in the Netherlands, 23% have a farm manager with a job outside the farm. About 31% have 1 or more assisting family members with an outside job.

On 30% of the arable farms the farmer has a job outside the farm and on 27% of the farms assisting family members have a job outside the farm. 

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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