Number of young stock drops by the million

The number of calves and heifers for dairy farming has continued to fall, while veal calf farming continues to increase. This has resulted in an interesting shift. 

Figures based on the provisional outcome of the Agricultural Census (April 2019) show that the number of calves and heifers, replacing dairy cows, has fallen by almost 10% to approximately 900.000. This means that the young stock has fallen through the 1 million mark for the first time since the turn of the century. 

Decline since 2016
The number of young stock has been declining sharply since 2016. One reason for this is that dairy farmers mainly use the phosphate space to keep dairy cows. The number of dairy cows has also decreased, by 2% to 1,6 million.

The decline in the number of dairy cows has also been going on for a number of years, so that the milk supply in the Netherlands is again almost in line with the quota era. However, the average milk yield per cow is still increasing. Earlier, CBS made already known that the average production per cow has increased by 175 kilos to 8.850 kilos. 

Where dairy farming is shrinking, veal calf farming is still showing growth figures. The number of veal calves has increased by 2% since the penultimate count, breaking the 1 million mark. This means that for the first time in the Netherlands there are now more veal calves than the number of young stock for dairy farming. The category other cattle decreased by 2% to 244.000 animals.

End of scaling
Statistics Netherlands concludes that the expansion is out of the question, both in dairy and cattle farming. The number of animals on cattle farms has shown a slight decrease for 3 years in a row to an average of 153 cattle in 2019. The average number of dairy cows per farm has fluctuated between 2016 and 94 since 97. Since then, the number of young stock on dairy farms has fallen from 65 to 51. 

Boerenbusiness puts the thermometer in agriculture at the National Economic Agricultural Congress, together with Statistics Netherlands. Click here for the program and tickets.

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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