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Through the initiative 'Sustainable Dairy Chain' (Duurzame Zuivelketen), dairy companies and dairy farmers jointly strive for a future-proof and responsible dairy sector. 'Sustainable Dairy Chain' has formulated objectives relating to four sustainability issues. This sector report sets out the progress in relation to these objectives in 2015.This report shows that the Sustainable Dairy Chain makes substantial efforts to improve on all sustainability issues it has prioritised and set targets on. On a number of issues, this is resulting in strong progress.For instance, the 2020 targets were already achieved in 2015 in the fields of antibiotics, energy efficiency and responsible soy. On greenhouse gases, phosphate and ammonia the Sustainable Dairy Chain has set targets in terms of absolute production thresholds. Realisation of these targets is at risk due to the further increase in production volume in 2015 and the fact that progress in the terms of efficiency is lagging behind expectations. This is partly due to incidental factors (high mineral content in roughage), and partly also due to the lack of incentives at farm level. In particular, exceeding the phosphate ceiling can have a great impact on the Dutch dairy sector as supplementary policy has been announced.

Voor dierenwelzijn en biodiversiteit is monitoring nog in ontwikkeling.The initiative 'The Sustainable Dairy Chain' (De Duurzame Zuivelketen) unites Dutch dairy companies and dairy farmers in their mission to create a future-proof and responsible dairy sector. The Sustainable Dairy Chain has formulated objectives on four sustainability themes.This sector report sets out the progress in relation to these objectives in 2016.It shows that the Sustainable Dairy Chain is making substantial efforts on all sustainability issues it has prioritised and set targets on and has already met its 2020 objectives in responsible antibiotics use, energy efficiency and responsible soy. The Sustainable Dairy Chain has set objectives in terms of production thresholds regarding greenhouse gases, phosphate and ammonia. The Dutch dairy sector is struggling to meet these objectives due to the further increase in livestock numbers and the production volume in 2016. A further drop in emissions per kilogram of milk and improved utilisation are needed to achieve the objectives at such production volumes. At the end of 2016 phosphatereduction measures were developed, which were implemented in 2017.These will cause a decrease in livestock numbers and a reduction in emissions at sector level. from the previous ones in that it also details the efforts of the Sustainable Dairy Chain to achieve the objectives. As the report on efforts is a first version, it will be refined in future reports. kilogram of milk and improved utilisation are needed to achieve the objectives at the current production volume. To this end, the Sustainable Dairy Chain is trying to make available specific management information to dairy farmers as well as creating incentives for individual farms. In addition, the drop in livestock numbers in the dairy sector -a result of the phosphate-reduction measures created at the end of 2016 -will help to reduce emissions at sector level.In 2016, the average lifespan of a dairy cow decreased to three days below the baseline measurement established in 2011. In contrast, the period running from 2011 to 2015 was characterised by a slight upwards trend in lifespan. One reason for the drop may be due to farm policy. Farms had a relatively high number of young stock to increase their livestock after the milk quota had been abolished. However, given that this possibility was less practicable or even non-existent following the introduction of the phosphate-reduction measures, farms instead replaced livestock. In terms of renewable energy, there was a drop in the production of renewable energy due to a lower power generation from wind (poor winds in the year) and co-fermentation of manure (as high-calorie co-substrate was relatively expensive). There is still much work to be done on improving lifespan and renewable energy production if the sector is to meet its objectives for 2020. | Wageningen Economic Research Rapport 2017-087Although the proportion of farms offering pasture grazing is still short of the 2012 target level, their numbe...

The introduction of the system of phosphate rights had an important impact on the results for 2018. This has led, among other things, to a further decrease in the number of dairy cows and the number of young cattle. All in all, this was favourable for the results for the themes of greenhouse gas emissions, phosphate, and ammonia. Of course, the additional culling of dairy cows had a negative effect on the average lifespan. Dit rapport is gratis te downloaden op