43% would cheat

Doubts about the scale of cattle fraud

2 February 2018 - Esther de Snoo - 24 comments

In the dairy farming sector there is strong doubt about the extent of cattle fraud, as communicated from the various authorities.

Co-author is Herma van den Pol

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) suspect that 7.700 dairy farmers have cheated with the registration of cattle. That is almost 43% of the total number of dairy farmers in the Netherlands.

These companies have been investigated and monitored by the NVWA and RVO.nl since mid-January. However, the extent of the fraud is strongly doubted by the representatives, various dairy companies and Rabobank.

We want to go to the minister with an open mind

Report to organization
At LTO Nederland, 1 dairy farmer has now reported to the Trust Office. 1 dairy farmers also reported to action group 'Innovative from the squeeze', where the livestock registration is not in order. Henk Antonissen is spokesperson on behalf of Innovative out of the pinch: "We want to go to the minister with an open mind. The pressure is high among our members, so we immediately set up a confidential committee for those who regret it. On the basis of this, 1 dairy farmer has reported. "

Apart from these 2 dairy farmers, various foremen from the sector say they have not received any signals of large-scale fraud. Wil Meulenbroeks, department chair of LTO Dairy Farming: "I do not deny that fraud has been committed and I want to emphasize that any form of fraud is unacceptable. However, the extent that the government communicates is unknown to me. I have never received any signals. If it were such a large group, then we should have gotten wind of it within LTO."

Harm Wiegersma, foreman of the Dutch Dairy Farmers' Union (NMV) also said in earlier in an interview from Boerenbusiness never received any signs of fraud. Various dairy companies and sector specialist Marijn Dekkers (Rabo bank).

At the same time a calf
A tour of several cattle traders (spread across the country) shows that 5 of them knew that there were dairy farmers who cheated with the registration of cattle. In the autumn of 2017, they heard that there were dairy farmers who exchanged calves on the farm.

How did that work? When a heifer and a dairy cow had a calf at the same time, the calf of the heifer was registered as the second calf of the dairy cow. So on paper the cow had twins and the heifer none. As a result, the heifer counted on paper as half a LU (large livestock unit) instead of a whole LU in the phosphate reduction scheme.

A second way in which fraud may have been committed

Another advantage of this contraction was that the heifer could simply be milked. Those extra liters paid off well, because of the high milk price.

Heifers from Germany
There is another way in which fraud may have been committed. That is because with the heifers imported from Germany. Here it is the registration that promotes fraud. For example, the registration takes place on the basis of the date of birth and the lifespan. It is not necessary to enter a calving date. This must be reported to RVO.nl and is then passed on to the Identification and Registration System (I&R).

Inquiries with cattle dealers show that the heifers that had calved in Germany were entered as young stock by Dutch dairy farmers. One dairy farmer is even known to import 1 calved heifers with the aim of milking them for 150 year and then having them calve (again).

Apart from this dairy farmer, it remains to be seen whether the dairy farmers who made use of this loophole in the registration system can be blamed for negligence. After all, the calving date does not have to be stated.

Not sampled
The question is how these dairy farmers have arranged this with the milk sampling. The milk of heifers that were not registered as dairy cows cannot be sampled. Wil Meulenbroeks: "That is also a mystery to me. At least 80% of dairy farmers have their milk sampled. That is why I do not have the impression that the size can be as large as the government reports."

Not nearly as large an increase as the ministry reports

Other figures
The Ministry of LNV speaks of 7.700 dairy farmers who may have committed fraud with the registration of cattle, based on the I&R registration of RVO.nl and NVWA. This registration runs through the CRV.

Meulenbroeks: "The CRV registration for the period 1987 up to and including 2017 shows that there is an increase in the number of multiple births in 2017, but not nearly as large an increase as communicated by the ministry. This difference is striking and "We also passed it on to the ministry. In any case, it could be concluded from the CRV registration that the number of multiple births fluctuates per year. For example, feed is an important factor in the fertility of cows. Dairy farmers have fed hard last year because of the high milk price."

Plus in milk supply
Another reason to doubt the volume, which is communicated, is the milk supply in 2017. If so many dairy farmers actually started milking heifers without reporting it, the plus in the milk supply would have been much higher than last year. used to be.

(Text continues below the chart)When it comes to this scale, the plus in the milk supply should have been higher.

Last week, Minister Carola Schouten (LNV) gave an interim report of the investigation. In the House of Representatives, in answer to questions from Helma Lodders (VVD), she indicated that she would come up with new, more concrete information next week. CRV has not been allowed to comment on the possible cattle fraud since the announcement of the fraud (January 23).

RVO.nl and the NVWA have also announced that they will not make any announcements during the investigation. The ministry also does not want to discuss the possible difference in figures between the CRV and the I&R registration. The NVWA has indicated that it needs 1 month for the investigation. It will become clear in the coming weeks how big the fraud actually is.

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Comments

24 comments

Subscriber

smart ass 2 February 2018

This is a response to this article:
[url=http://www.boerenbusiness.nl/melk-feed/ artikel/10877420/twijfels-over-omvang-van-rundveefraude][/url]

so those creeps from NRC have it done.
all ranchers are bad and soon it will be about 1% fraud
get rid of that newspaper, they can't forbid it

Jeroen 2 February 2018

Yes yes, play the silly innocence together, but as farmers we know very well that something is completely wrong.
We are not going to pretend that nothing is wrong. There has been some cheating in recent years.

Dirk 2 February 2018

Let them first wait for the investigation, and not include all unconscious mistakes I think there are more tax evaders than farmers who have abused the I&R system

Subscriber

Skirt 2 February 2018

I am not a rancher, but you will be paged in front of you. I'd keep my back straight, who's crazy then, there are very few friends outside the sector.

Groko 2 February 2018

Hey Jeroen, explain yourself further because I missed something. If you are so convinced, please share it. I don't know them..... and dare I say that I know quite a few jokes and mvh

burke 2 February 2018

More suspect that this "fraud" story is being whipped up to cover their own in case the derogation might be lost...it just keeps getting postponed and now they can immediately point the finger at us with tis your own Otherwise they will get the load of shit over them and their jobs will be at risk from our ministries and 'so-called advocates

Henk 3 February 2018

don't know what they all mean by fraud, every farmer has a calf that has been canceled too late.... does that count as fraud? Had a company inspection this week .... who said that a farmer was already messing around with the heifers in July, must be something going on but 45% seems excessive to me.

Skirt 3 February 2018

I have a dark brown suspicion that a political game is being played. There is a minister who saw an opportunity to profile himself strongly by blowing up this fraud considerably. Think carefully about who has what interest in this matter, Calon is very quiet at the moment, by the way.

Bob 3 February 2018

I think the NVWA and the ministry need a kick in the ass, they need to be sure before they pull the mouth loose.
Bunch of amateurs, just like with the fipronil case, it's time that heads rolled at the NVWA

Subscriber

Dirk 3 February 2018

Dirk from above.
Would you please respond with a different name?
In terms of integrity, I am a bit different from you, among others. Tax evasion is also not possible, just like I&R fraud. Just do it right, without compassion. In this country we just have to follow the rules well together. And that goes for farmers too, no excuse. I also strongly support strict enforcement.

Since I've probably carried my name with me for a while longer than you [can't help but notice the level of your reaction], I don't want to change it anymore.

rinus van weasel 3 February 2018

Watch and listen to Merijntje's talk:

https://youtu.be/NwAa0VunDcY

Merijntje saw that Minister of Agriculture Carola Schouten was angry and showed her teeth. The dairy farmers who have created calf twins themselves will be punished and that will not be nice, she adds.

Merijntje does blame the minister that she has publicized the affair in such a way and has thus caused the dairy sector major negative PR. Had it really been necessary to blow off the tower so high and let citizens and outsiders know what had happened?

This was an example of hanging out dirty laundry and contrary to the credo of good PR “be good and tell” has now become “Be bad and tell it”

bull 3 February 2018

Are the first cracks starting to show in the allegations that Carola Schouten brought out with a lot of drumming? Finally, there is a beginning of daring on the part of directors to question certain claims, which could have been done earlier.
Madam Minister, first take the time that month to expose abuses before putting the entire dairy sector in the spotlight with your insinuating cry "possible fraud at 7700 dairy farms". Were you mainly looking for a lot of media attention? That has been successful on the backs of many well-meaning dairy farmers.

Subscriber

smart ass 3 February 2018

she is also having twins of her own.

is that true?

Subscriber

Dirk 3 February 2018

No, boys and girls.
We don't have any use for slack talk and that cloak of love.
That didn't help "all those well-meaning farmers".
Because we live in a society with only "well-intentioned farmers"?
Mark Rutte said that the Minister of Agriculture is not there on behalf of the farmers, but for the farmers, among other things. So she's acting completely right and nothing else.
And if all the I&R bartering, which I read about every day [even this morning] is thoroughly investigated, the outcome will still make your hair stand on end. The assessment of the magnitude of the problem they have made may well be correct.
Why should it be kept secret?

Ton Westgeest 3 February 2018

I don't participate in it and I wouldn't know anyone who does it. Cowboys are always there, even before the end of the quota, when everything had yet to be done. I believe that hard evidence must first be presented, otherwise we will just be peeped again for the umpteenth time.
I hope Carola comes with hard evidence otherwise I'm not a fan of hers anymore.
It does make you think that people/farmers who keep writing about fraud know more about it.....

danny 3 February 2018

I've heard of less than 30 in total....(.From someone from lto..)

jos verstrate 3 February 2018

why should boerenbusiness now make fake news yourself by mentioning the percentage of 43% if companies were cheated where possible? The figure of 7700 is no more than the number of farms where more than 5% twin births took place in 2017 out of a total of 32000 farms where calves are born.
LNV itself indicates that the result of the 'sample' may not be extrapolated to the sector, and subsequently Boerenbusiness it is! Idiot.
That's how it used to be with manure fraud. Nobody knew how big it was until a cumela director once said during a lecture that it can be as much as 35% in the south-east of the Netherlands and voila, the number will haunt you.

Pete 3 February 2018

It's going to be blown up, what's the point.
If you take a closer look at the governments in the Netherlands and Brussels, what will you find.
But you can't talk about that then you will be punished
You can always sow onions, more needs to be sown is said, the price is already unwilling, who will benefit from that, not the farmer, they are all games

Marc 3 February 2018

The NVWA should be thoroughly examined. It is all too coincidental for me that on the very day it was announced that the phosphate reduction target had been achieved, this was published. Don't get me wrong: fraudsters should be punished. But so far 45 companies have been blocked out of the 95 surveyed with the largest percentage of multiple births (>10%). So there are 50 companies from this group where the administration is just right!
Minister Schouten is put in front of the NVWA. She is presented with figures of possibly 7700 fraudulent companies. She has to deal with that.

geert 3 February 2018

Dairy farming is once again portrayed as a criminal organization. So administrators and government, especially come up with many rules to further corner the farmers, because then the chance is greater to catch the farmers for violations. Then again large pieces in the media to nail the farmers to the pillory,, The Netherlands at its best. Hi what are you doing?

Dirk 4 February 2018

The departure of Schouten and Calon is nearby.

eric 4 February 2018

cc Dirk let's hope the latter because what he says doesn't help the farmer but only makes it worse

as youthful 5 February 2018

lto better get rid of him today with his blunders, but he was already known for that at the blue city (20 mln loss). It is incomprehensible that such a failure could work for the Lto.

Ruud68 7 February 2018

I did some Googling with Blue City, Aedes and Calon. Now this Marc Calon has left behind a bad reputation in Groningen. And by such a bully who has spent millions of provincial money himself, the Dutch dairy farmer must be denounced as a fraud through the media in the evening. No one is guilty if there is no evidence. Speaking of expulsion, be the first to remove this man from the LTO.

Cornelis 11 February 2018

That there have been dairy farmers who have not applied the rules properly will unfortunately be true. But if it is not correct at 7700 companies, you also have to guess whether the rules and the systems are correct.
There are probably also mistakes made at the RVO and at CRV. Now you also notice that RVO is not easily accessible and cannot answer many questions. It's kind of weird that it's done this way.
If you consciously make mistakes, if there is fraud, you will be fined. But if the system does not work, then this includes an apology from RVO and not a blocking and accusation of fraud if you make a mess of it yourself.

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43% would cheat

Doubts about the scale of cattle fraud

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