Number of dairy cows hardly declined

The number of dairy cows in the Netherlands remained almost the same in 2022, at 1.57 million. The number of pigs decreased slightly in the last year, while the goat herd grew slightly in size. This is according to final figures from CBS' Agricultural Census 2022.

On 1 April 2022, the Netherlands had 3.8 million cattle, 0.4 per cent more than a year earlier. Compared to 2017, there were 6 per cent fewer cattle. Dairy cattle accounted for 41 per cent of the number of cattle last year, the same as in 2021.

The number of farms with dairy cattle has been showing a decline for years

Last year, there were 14.7 thousand farms with dairy cattle, 3 per cent less than in 2021. Compared to five years earlier, this is down by almost 20 per cent. The average number of dairy cows per farm grew to 107 in 2022. A year earlier, the average was 103 per farm and in 2017, a farm with dairy cattle had 94 dairy cows.

The total number of veal calves decreased by 0.4 per cent to over 1 million in 2022, remaining almost the same as a year earlier. Compared to 2017, the number did increase; by 9 per cent.

Pig herd size shrunk slightly

The pig herd decreased in 2022 compared to a year earlier; the number of animals decreased 1.6 per cent to 11.3 million. Compared to 2017, the pig herd has 9 per cent fewer animals. The number of pigs has declined partly due to the cessation scheme and the subsidy scheme for pig reorganisation (SRV) since 2020.

The number of farms with pigs fell by 4 per cent to almost 3.3 thousand last year compared to 2021. Over five years, the average number of pigs per farm increased by almost 20 per cent to 3.4 thousand. This is mainly because relatively small farms stopped keeping pigs in recent years.

Goat herd continues to grow

The number of dairy goats increased by 1 per cent to almost 489 thousand in 2022, compared to five years earlier, the goat herd grew by 30 per cent. More than half of the dairy goats were in the provinces of North Brabant (137 thousand) and Gelderland (117 thousand) last year. In these provinces, the number of dairy goats did not increase further last year, the first time since the introduction of the goat ban in 2017.

Cbs.nl