Dairy farms show virtually no growth

Dairy farms in the Netherlands did not or hardly grow in size in 2017, compared to last year. This is evident from the Agricultural Census 2017 by Statistics Netherlands.

The average number of dairy cows per farm increased from 56 in 2000 to 101 in 2016, but in 2017 that number was just under 100 dairy cows (99 head). The yield of a Dutch dairy farmer doubled between 2000 and 2017 to more than €400.000.

The dairy farms in the Netherlands have not specialized further. The degree of specialization remained at 81%. This degree of specialization is calculated by dividing the standard return that the companies obtain from their core activity by the standard return that all companies together obtain from that activity.

Expansion activities are increasing
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%).

These activities differ greatly per agricultural sector. Agricultural landscape and nature management scores highest among dairy farms (19%). Participation in broadening activities at all also differs considerably. However, this is highest at 35% among dairy farms, compared to arable and pig farms (28% and 12%), respectively.

The contribution of these activities to the company's total revenue is normally not that great. For 62% of all agricultural companies with widening, this is less than 10%. At the dairy farms, for more than 80% of the farms with expansion, the contribution is less than 10%.

A job next to the company
Farmers on family farms often have a job next to the farm. In almost half of the family businesses, the farm manager and/or the assisting family members have an outside job. 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 12% of the dairy farms the farmer has a job outside the farm and on 39% of the farms assisting family members have an outside job.

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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