Inside: Dairy Market
Dutch milk lake no longer grows
The month of December delivers the turning point in the milk supply. This is apparent from figures from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl). It does not quite rhyme with the sounds from the field, but it is also not completely unexpected when the slaughter figures are included.
Read this article?
Become a subscriber and get instant access
Choose the subscription that suits you
The month of December brings slightly less milk than last year. While sounds from the field indicate that more milk was taken into account. The explanation for this must be sought in the processing. It appears that milk processors opted for lower occupancy during the festive month, which meant that the market still had to deal with less product.
-0,01
percent
Milk supply stable
Figures from RVO.nl show that dairy farmers delivered 1,20 million tons of milk in December, a decrease of 0,01% compared to 2016. That makes it a negligible change, but it does mean that growth has disappeared from the Dutch milk pool. is.
Milk fat production even dips into the red in December. The average fat content is 4,51%, compared to 4,58% a year earlier. Because extra liters of milk are supplied, fat production (54.289 tons) is 1,5% below last year's volume.
High number of slaughters
The lower milk supply fits in seamlessly with the slaughter figures. These show a fairly extreme upturn in the month of December. This is partly the result of dairy farmers responding to the lost lawsuit still had to repel livestock. For example, the month of October saw a decrease of 1,6% (compared to 2016) and the month of November recorded a stable number. However, the number of slaughters increased by 9% in December to 59.175 heads.
The Dutch milk supply for 2017 amounted to 14,30 million tons of milk, a decrease of just under 0,2% compared to 2016. This means that the backlog that arose halfway through the year has largely been milked away. Milk production averages 1,191 million tons of milk per month. That is slightly less than the 1,193 million tons in 2016.
Forecast 2018
The expectation for 2018 is that the milk supply will be lower for the entire year. This is a result of the introduction of the phosphate rights system. There is not enough time to achieve the optimal composition of the livestock and thus maintain milk production. However, there are too few rights to maintain the current livestock population.
Average milk production decreased slightly in 2017.
The phosphate reduction plan had major consequences. This is also reflected in the number of slaughters.