An investigation into possible major changes for veal farming, commissioned by agriculture minister Carola Schouten, has caused a lot of commotion in the sector. The implementation of this so-called scenario studio not only has a huge impact on the calf supply chain, but also on the dairy farmer's business operations. What threatens to hit him?
Minister Schouten completed the investigation last week (May 18). sent to the House of Representatives. According to her, this is a scenario study and not a new policy. But anyone who follows politics a little knows that such studies are the prelude to changes and that the future of veal farming will be on the agenda of the new cabinet.
De study was leaked in March, which has already resulted in quite a commotion in the veal farming industry. The report was drawn up by 3 private research agencies under the supervision of 9 officials from the ministry and 1 from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. The recommendations that have been made are not good. The report concludes that calves should remain with the dairy farmer longer or even completely and that in certain scenarios the veal sector should become smaller or could even disappear with a changing role for the dairy farmer.
The report talks about 3 scenarios that will change the sector. These are the 'Home and satisfied', 'Maximally Integrated' and 'loyal to local'. With the first scenario, the entire veal farming sector is lost, because dairy farmers are given complete responsibility for rearing all calves. In scenario 2, dairy farmers must arrange rearing for calves for up to 3 months. And in the latter scenario, veal farmers must cooperate better with dairy farmers and the animals must not be transported more than 100 kilometers.
These measures will be disastrous for the veal sector. Whether and to what extent measures from these scenarios will ultimately be implemented is anyone's guess. But what impact could such scenarios have on dairy farming, for example if dairy farmers have to take care of the calves for the first 3 months or even completely. We list some effects.
Burdens for the dairy farmer
The biggest challenge for dairy farmers is finding space for the calves they can no longer accommodate. A dairy farm with 100 dairy cows, where 90 cows calve every year, needs around 30 calves to replace the herd. The remaining 60 calves go to a calf farmer after 14 days.
Suppose a dairy farmer keeps these 60 calves for slaughter himself, then more space, phosphate, roughage, concentrates and labor must be created. In this example, a dairy farmer needs between 300 and 600 additional kilos of phosphate with a manure application of 60 to 240 cubic meters. This gives an investment pressure of between €36.000 to €72.000 in phosphate (phosphate price of €120 per kilo) and annual manure disposal costs of €600 to €2.400 (based on manure disposal costs of €10 per cubic meter). In addition, a dairy farmer must also create space for additional group cages and labor.
Delve into calves
A dairy farmer must also delve into keeping veal calves, while this may not be interesting or profitable for a company at all. Dairy farmers will gain an extra industry that they did not ask for.
The research did not take into account the incomes of either the veal farmer or the dairy farmer. We only looked at how things should be done differently according to the advisors, but there is no revenue model for every scenario. For example, it is said that dairy farmers should hire staff to rear the extra young cattle. Not a word is said about the financial consequences for veal farmers.
Possible solutions
Dairy farmers can use sexed semen to raise as many female young cattle as possible for sale and replacement, thereby minimizing the need to keep beef cattle.
Young cattle rearers can also take on the task of raising bull calves for slaughter in addition to rearing female young cattle. The question is whether this is allowed again according to the research or whether the transport distance is also taken into account, etc. This is unclearly stated in the report and depends on which scenario is ultimately chosen.
Expectation
The report has been sent to the Senate and House of Representatives where the scenarios are discussed. This creates additional uncertainty about the sector for both dairy farmers and veal farmers. Outgoing Carola Schouten from LNV sees the report as a 'new perspective' and wants to first explore the scenarios and not implement them immediately. In short, more uncertainty and no financial solutions.