Weather and bluetongue put pressure on cattle grazing in 2024

Dairy farmers indicated that the wet spring played a major role in this decline, according to a survey by dairy companies among dairy farmers. The outbreak of buetongue was also mentioned as a reason for not grazing or keeping cows in barns earlier in the season. 

Last grazing season, the percentage of dairy farms practicing grazing decreased to 80.1%. Dairy farmers can choose grazing in two ways: full grazing and partial grazing. With full grazing, cows spend at least 120 days at pasture for six hours a day. With partial grazing, at least a quarter of the herd goes out to pasture. The percentage of farms using full grazing dropped from 77.0% to 73.9%. The proportion of farms using partial grazing rose from 5.8% to 6.2%. ZuivelNL published the figures in its annual report. 

Structural focus on grazing by Covenant partners
In 2012, more than 80 organizations, including governments, supermarket chains, banks, feed suppliers and various civil society organizations, joined forces to sign the Grazing Covenant. This Covenant, an initiative of ZuivelNL’s Sustainable Dairy Chain program, aims to structurally uphold grazing.