Large dairy farm continues to grow steadily

An average dairy farm in the Netherlands has just under 100 cows, 97 per farm. The number of cows per farm is still growing, which led to a record milk production of 14,3 billion kilos last year. It is striking that the 100 largest dairy farms are growing steadily.

In the period 1980–2016, the number of farms with dairy cows decreased by more than 49.000 to almost 18.000. Calculated this is almost 4 stoppers per day. In 1980 a farm had an average of 38 cows. In 2016, there were an average of 97 dairy cows on a farm.  

More than 1,7 million cows produced a record high milk supply of 2016 billion kilos in 14,3. By way of comparison: this is more than 600.000 cows less than the number before the introduction of the milk quota in 1984. The average milk production per cow increased between 1980 and 2016 from almost 5 thousand liters to 8,2 thousand liters per year.

Big getting bigger
It is striking that the 100 largest dairy farms in our country are growing steadily. In 2006 this group had an average of 288 cows. Last year there were an average of 493. The number of acre of land under these farms is also growing, but cannot keep up with the growth in the number of cows. In 2006 there was an average of 178 hectares under the 100 largest dairy farms. This number has increased to 213 hectares last year. Converted into hectares per cow, this means a growth of 0,7 to an average of 2,3 cows per hectare. This means that the large dairy farms are becoming increasingly intensive.

Small dairy farm not popular
More than 55 percent of dairy farmers older than 60 years have a successor. This means that dairy farming scores above average when it comes to business succession. This percentage is 20 percent higher than the national average in the total agricultural sector.

There are, however, significant differences. At large farms (+ 100 cows), 85 percent have a successor ready. In small farms (- 50 cows) only 28 percent have a successor. 

Wouter Job

Wouter Baan is editor-in-chief of Boerenbusiness. He also focuses on dairy, pig and meat markets. He also follows (business) developments within agribusiness and interviews CEOs and policymakers.

w.baan@boerenbusiness. Nl

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