Inside: Milk & Food
Thousands of cows imported in the last quarter of 2016
According to the phosphate reduction plan, he or she must dispose of the number of cows supplied by a dairy farmer after 1 October 2016. It is difficult to determine how many imported animals are involved.
Read this article?
Become a subscriber and get instant access
Choose the subscription that suits you
There was a lot of talk about it at the end of last year: the enormous amount of dairy cow imports, especially in the months of October and November. Frans Keurentjes, chairman of FrieslandCampina (RFC), even mentioned the import of 'forty to fifty thousand cows' as an important reason for the current standstill applied by the group. These cows are said to have caused the unexpectedly large growth in milk production, which caused RFC to get into trouble.
Forty to fifty thousand cows imported in a few months. That sounds like an incredible amount. To verify the figure, the question was asked to the authorities that monitor it. The NVWA for the inspection and the RVO for the I&R registration. Through a spokeswoman, the NVWA states that it does not have the figures in order. The RVO is still working on answering the question.
However, now that the date of October 1 is so important within the phosphate reduction plan, it is worthwhile to look for the answer earlier. This can also be done with a fairly good approximation by comparing other figures.
For example, the CRV figures show that there were 1 cows in the Netherlands on October 2016, 1.750.531. On December 1, 2016 there were 1.754.918 and on January 1 the number was even lower than on October 1 with 1.748.303. This certainly does not indicate major growth and is a signal that indicates a lot of dairy cattle imports.
However, it should not be forgotten that many more cows were slaughtered in the same period. In the last quarter of 2016, 175.884 cattle were slaughtered. The average number per year from 2010 to 2015 was 147.965. This average is very close to the number for 2015. A difference of about 28.0000.
It is important to know that the number of cattle slaughtered in the Netherlands largely consists of milk-producing animals. Young cattle are only a small part and beef cattle amount to a stable 6 to 10 percent every year, reports the COV (Central Organization for the Beef Cattle Sector). The service states that there are no signals that things suddenly changed in the last quarter of 2016. We therefore attribute the 28.000 extra slaughters to dairy cows and heifers.
Also more exports
The export of cattle from dairy farming was 2016 heads higher from October to December 2.300 than in the same period last year. This increase continued even further last January. In that month the difference was almost 4.000 animals compared to January 2015.
The 2.300 extra animals for export and 28.000 for slaughter make a total of more than 30.000 animals. While the CRV figures show that the number of cows was virtually stable between October 1 and January 1, this is also approximately the number that were imported to the Netherlands during this period. And that does not yet include the additional slaughter of Dutch cattle abroad, which very likely occurred but which cannot yet be concretely determined.
Seen from this perspective, the number of forty to fifty thousand may be a bit too high, but everything indicates that more than 30.000 animals were imported to dairy farms after October 1, 2016.
