Divided reactions to decommissioned manure rights

The pig farming and dairy farming sectors are reacting dividedly to the plans to make phosphate rights and pig rights interchangeable. For the time being, however, politics has remained silent.

The discussion about the exchange of production rights has flared up again. The reason is a plan by a former dairy farmer and farmer manager Jan Cees Vogelaar† He believes that dairy farmers with sufficient land under their farm should be given the opportunity to buy pig rights.

Varying reactions
Pig farmers react differently to the plan. The stoppers and switches, to a smaller-scale pig farm with more added value, are for the plan. However, the companies that want to build a future are against Vogelaar's idea. There are also stayers in the pig sector who are in favor of the plan, such as Johnny Hogenkamp from Dalfsen (Overijssel). This is reported by Melk van het Noorden magazine.

Hogenkamp has a pig breeding farm with 1.600 sows and 2.600 rearing and finishing pigs. "If pig farming makes room for dairy farming once, this will provide benefits for both sectors. There are many pig farmers today who would like to stop, but are unable to do so financially. A win-win situation can be created on a voluntary basis, both for dairy farmers and pig farmers," says the pig farmer from Dalfsen.

Hogenkamp simply calls the pig herd in the overcrowded and over-regulated Netherlands too large for a healthy income. He therefore advocates a short intervention period, during which hungry dairy farmers can opt for production space from pig farmers who want to stop for a fair price. "After the intervention period, the partitions are put back in place, so that the stayers do not experience any disadvantages."

'Insane and silly plan'
Pig farmer Hans Elshof from Marum (Groningen) is firmly against Vogelaar's plan. "Making rights interchangeable? It is an unnecessary and silly plan. Chickens and pigs emit less methane than cows. And methane is much more harmful than phosphate. So you exchange one problem for another. turn your neck in favor of the other? I don't understand what you want to achieve with it."

Ingrid Jansen, chairman of the Producers Organization Pig Farming (POV), is also against the plan. "By making the rights interchangeable, the production rights disappear from the sector. Room for development is limited, while the costs for the production rights rise. In a sector where the profitability of companies is under pressure, this is an undesirable situation."

The POV does see, however, that it can be interesting for companies that are stopping to make the rights interchangeable. "But we try to make quitting interesting through the Environmental Quality Regulation (ROK). The basic premise of this is that pig farms without a future perspective are linked to farms with prospects. The POV thus has the attention of both the quitters and the companies with a future," says Jansen. .

What is Vogelaar's plan?
Many entrepreneurs in the dairy sector are in favor of the plan, according to responses on various internet forums. Various dairy farmers, such as Jan van Weperen, have also stated that they are in favor of decompartmentalisation. Entrepreneur and director Jan Cees Vogelaar argues for disbursement under a number of conditions. The first condition is that only land-bound dairy farmers can buy pig rights.

The second condition is that for every allowance that changes from pig to cow, 50% must be skimmed off. He thinks that under these 2 conditions 3,2 million pigs can be exchanged for 300.000 cows. Livestock is shrinking, which should also reduce methane and ammonia emissions. According to Vogelaar's calculations, the national manure surplus will decrease by 40%.

However, not everyone is convinced yet. "We have agreed within LTO, in consultation with the livestock sectors, that the partitions between the sectors will continue to exist. This means that we are currently not in favor of exchanging rights between sectors," said a spokesperson for LTO Dairy Farming.

Politics leaves it to the sector
The political leaders, with agriculture in their portfolio, mainly thought that the sectors should first agree on interchangeability. "After that I am certainly willing to look at it," says Jaco Geurs (CDA). Helma Lodders (VVD) also says that the VVD does not rule out the possibility of removing the bulkheads. "But at the moment we are not in favor." 

Carla Dik-Faber (ChristenUnie) also says that she is not in favor at the moment. "There is still an ongoing discussion within the sectors about the desirability of this plan." The PvdA and the SP have previously announced that they are in favor of the exchange of rights, as long as land-relatedness is not compromised.

CDA MEP Annie Schreijer-Pierik is a strong supporter of the plan. “I see a nice double shot ahead of me. It would give dairy farmers air and space and give pig farmers a warm remediation.”

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