On 11 May, the Committee for Experts on Fertilizers (CDM) advised agricultural minister Carola Schouten to use the period until 1 September 2020 to look for solutions for dairy farms in the export of the concentrates scheme.
The committee has recommended that this be done in collaboration with advisors and feed suppliers, according to the report: 'Reduction of ammonia emissions due to less protein in concentrated feed of dairy cattle'. Minister Schouten's feed measure is the seed of the farmers' protests that are going on. Dairy farmers fear that government intervention in the ration endangers animal health. The report also states that the ministry takes into account a 15% margin of error in calculating the amount of ammonia reduction, due to the risk that livestock farmers will not comply with the feed measure.
Big doubt about support
The CDM concludes that the measure - which applies for a period of 4 months to speed up permit granting in the construction industry - provides sufficient, but limited emission reductions. The measure will probably affect more than half of the dairy farms, in the sense that these dairy farmers will have to make adjustments to the composition of the ration for a short period of time.
This requires support among dairy farmers, which seems to be there if the dairy farmers themselves can determine how the protein content in the ration is reduced. Because the measure is now mandatory, this support appears to be less, the CDM wrote in the report 2 months ago. This is also due to the lack of a perspective for the sector and the political context of the measure. "Structural (feed) measures will be introduced from 2021, but it is currently unclear how those structural measures will be introduced," the CDM reports.
The Committee therefore recommends providing clarity in the short term about the content and perspective of the structural feed measures for the long term. This also makes the link with the current 4-month feeding measure clearer.
Clause minimum percentage crude protein
With the concentrates regulation, the Ministry of LNV plans to set limits on the protein contents in concentrates for cows from 1 September, differentiated by soil type (sand, clay, peat) and farm intensity (milk production per hectare). There are protein limits for 9 combinations of soil type and intensity, 'derived' on the basis of samples from dairy farms in the BIN monitoring network of Wageningen Economic Research.
A clause has been included in the ministerial regulation of Minister Schouten that provides that extra protein may be supplied if the protein content in the entire ration of dairy cattle falls below 155 g/kg dry matter, so that negative health effects and loss of production in dairy cattle are prevented.
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