Grazing is not a black and white story

Societal issue

The percentage of grazing animals in the Netherlands has been slowly declining during the last two decades. Regional differences are observed, with the highest numbers for grazing on the peaty soils in the west. In the last decade, grazing of cattle has also become a societal issue. Society values grazing for reasons of cultural heritage and the association with animal welfare. The dairy sector wants to support grazing by influencing the factors that are affecting the extent of grazing on farms. Therefore, in 2012 the ‘Convenant Weidegang’ (‘Treaty Grazing’) was initiated. At the end of 2016, more than 70 parties in the Netherlands have signed this Treaty, including dairy farmers, dairy industry, feed industry, banks, accountants, semen industry, AMS industry, veterinarians, cheese sellers, retail, NGO’s, nature conservation, government, education and science. The aim of the Treaty is to stabilize the percentage of farms that practise grazing. In 2016, almost 80% of the dairy farms in the Netherlands practised grazing.

Grazing in Europe

When you look at the perspective of grazing on a European level, grazing in the Netherlands is above average. Data on grazing in Europe are not easily available. But, based on educated guesses of the Working Group “Grazing” of the European Grassland Federation, Europe can be divided in different regions⁽¹⁾ , going from a percentage of grazing near 100% in the North and West of Europe to little grazing in the East and South. In many European countries, grazing is slowly decreasing.

Reasons for less grazing

The decline in the popularity of grazing is supported by current trends in livestock farming in Europe. Average herd size increased during the last number of years and the number of automatic milking systems increased. Grazing of large herds can be difficult to manage. And even though grazing in combination with an automatic milking system is very well possible, the general consensus is that it is also difficult to manage. The average milk production per cow increased and farmers with high yielding cattle like to control feed rations. Again, control of feed rations is more difficult in grazing situations. In countries where grass growth is delayed in summer, another reason for less grazing may be the uncertainty of grass supply to meet the feed demand of grazing cows. Finally, reasons for less grazing may be better grassland utilization, the need to reduce mineral losses and arguments with respect to labour. The latter is particularly important for many farmers.

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