Kategorie: News

Ireland had on March 31, 2022 a number of 15973 dairy herds. Together they had 1649362 dairy cows. A number of 1429 herds housed more than 200 cows; 4769 herds had 100 to 200 cows; 6176 herds had 50 to 100 cows; 2644 herds had 25 to 50 cows and 955 herds had 1 to 25 cows.( Source: Irisch Department of Agriculture.)

The Danish Energy Agency has published a report that shows that the emissions from livestock are expected to increase from 4.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 to 4.4 million tonnes in 2030. This is due to „an expected increase in the population of special dairy cattle“ as well as an „increased milk yield“ from the cows, according to the projection. However: the Danish dairy farmers organization LDM after deeper analysing the projection got exactly the opposite result.

In Sweden the carbon footprint of farm milk at delivery is one kilogram carbon dioxide equivalents CO2e, according to an investigation of the Swedish dairy cooperative Skanemejerier.

In Finland according to a recent report published by the market research company Kantar TNS Agri by 2030 there will be about half of the current farms left i.e. 2315 farms, and there will be 89 cows per farm in average. The total number of cows will decrease by almost 30000 by 2027, to less than 220000 cows. However: about 25 percent of the dairy farms are planning to invest in the next five years, that is, to build a new barn or expand and/or renovate an old one.

The biggest dairy cooperative Valio is updating its sustainability bonus programme for dairy farms on May 1st 2023. Farms can receive additional pay for milk for grazing their cattle and giving them access to outdoor activity, for farming practices supporting biodiversity, and for efforts aiming to reduce the farm’s carbon footprint. Valio launched the sustainability bonus programme in 2018 to encourage dairy farms to carry out sustainability actions that go beyond the statutory requirements. Previously, the sustainability bonus was two cents per litre of milk; now it will be possible for farms to earn an additional cent by combining various actions. More than 70% of Valio farms graze their cattle, and about 80 percent of the farms have either pasturage or exercise yards.

In a forecast for 2022 the European Commission does not expect that in 2022 the milk production in the EU will increase, despite higher milk prices. Milk production per cow is expected to increase one percent but the number of dairy cows is expected to decrease one percent.

Spanish farmers that produce cow, sheep and or goat milk can get financial aid of total 169 million euro to support milk producers affected by the input costs increase caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the related sanctions. For this the Spanish government has got approval from the European Commission. Milk producers can get a subsidy of 210 euro per cow for the first 40 animals, 140 euro for any additional cows up to a limit of 180 cows and 100 euro per cow beyond 180 cows. The subsidy for sheep is 15 euro and for goat 10 euro. The maximum subsidy per farm is 35000 euro.

Austria had on January 1, 2022 a number of 76 companies that process milk 48000 kilogram milk a year or more. This is two less than one year before and 12 less than ten years before.

Austria had ultimo 2022 a number of 23868 milk supplying dairy farms which is 777 farms less than one year before and 12592 or 35 percent less than then years before.

In Germany in April compared to March 2022 the raw material or compound value of milk at farm increased 6.6 eurocent to 67.5 eurocent per kilogram milk with 4.0 percent fat and 3.4 percent protein (exclusive VAT). This is 31.3 eurocent more than in the same month one year before. The highest future price of milk for the next 18 months on the Kieler Börsenmilchwert European Energy Exchange is the price for May 2022 at 66.5 eurocent. The lowest future price is the price for July 2023 until November 2023 at 57.9 eurocent.

In Germany in 2021 milk supply to dairies was 32 million tons which was 1.9 percent less than in 2020. Of the supply 31.2 million tons was of German origin.

In Germany in 2021 compared to 2020 the consumption of milk per capita decreased 2.2 kilogram to 47.8 kilogram. Cheese consumption stayed equal with 25.3 kilogram, butter consumption fell 200 gram to 6.1 kilogram per capita.

Germany had 2021 a number of 54800 dairy farms, which was around 2500 less than in 2020. Together they kept 3.83 million cows which was two percent less than in 2020. Average milk production was 8488 kilogram per cow.

The Belgian family owned dairy Olympia will become part of the Holland headquartered family owned dairy Royal A-ware. Royal A-ware takes over the shares of Olympia. Olympia collects about 67 million litres of milk a year from about 170 farms and produces a wide range of products:milk, milk concentrate, fresh and non-perishable cream, butter, desserts, ice cream bases. Milk is collected daily from farms. Royal A-ware is a Dutch family business, specialized in the production, ripening, cutting and packaging of cheese and other fresh food products such as fresh dairy products, tapas and milk powder.

In Holland the committee that every year forecasts the long term farmers milk price forecasts that in 2032 farmers average will receive a milk price of 38.50 euro per 100 kilogram, which is 1.5 euro more than the committee last year forecasted for 2031. Members of the committee are financial experts from banks, farmers organizations, dairy organizations, Wageningen University & Research and the government.

In Holland, analyses of data of 12000 dairy farms shows that more intensive farms have a lower greenhouse gas emission than less intensive farms. On farms with the ten percent lowest emission the average milk production per hectare land was 19500 kilogram compared to 16600 kilogram on the other farms and the average milk production per cow 800 kilogram more higher than on the other farms. Also the ten percent farms with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions added 40 kilogram nitrogen per kilogram less to pasture land and their cows were 300 hours less on pasture.

In Holland the organization of feed producers will assist dairy farmers to limit the amount of protein in dairy cow feed to a maximum of 160 gram protein per kilogram dry matter in 2025.

In Ireland, in response to the extreme and unprecedented inflation in farm inputs, the biggest dairy cooperative Glanbia has announced a six-month pilot with 50 percent milk payments two times a month.

In Ireland following the latest review of milk supply forecasts for 2022, the biggest dairy cooperative Glanbia has announced that no penalties will be applied to milk suppliers that exceeded their Peak Milk allocations in April, May or June in 2022. One year ago Glanbia has announced a mechanism to manage the rate of growth in peak milk supplies in April, May and June from 2022. For expanding suppliers among others there was announced a milk price deduction of 30 percent. For the year-to-date, milk supply to Glanbia is running 2.3 percent behind the same period last year, mainly due to the unprecedented surge in farm input costs.

The Denmark headquartered dairy cooperative Arla and the Holland headquartered DSM start an on-farm pilot programme to reduce methane emissions from dairy cows by testing the Bovaer feed additive that is aimed to reduce methane emissions from cows by around 30 percent on more than 50 farms with together 10000 dairy cows in Denmark, Sweden and Germany.