The Dutch government is considering plans to restrict cattle numbers to two cows per football pitch-sized field, putting them on a collision course with the country’s farmers.
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has not yet approved the proposed limit of up to “0.35 hectares of grassland per livestock unit”, which is part of a range of measures designed to help the Netherlands meet European Union climate change targets.
The aim is to reduce the large quantities of polluting methane, produced by manure and fertiliser, in grassland-poor areas, while other fields will be converted to grassland, which is good for biodiversity and water quality.
Farmers are incensed by the plans to limit their livestock numbers, especially in the south of the Netherlands, where about 3.5 cows per football field graze.
Strained relations
Relations between farmers in the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter and Mr Rutte are already strained.
In March, the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) triumphed in regional elections dominated by tractor protests against compulsory farm buyouts, designed to hit EU climate change targets.
Protests over measures to reduce nitrogen drew global attention and support from the likes of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
The BBB came from nowhere to become the largest party in all 12 Dutch provinces in what became a de facto referendum on the leadership of Mr Rutte, the Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister.
The party is now targeting power in The Hague if Mr Rutte’s coalition collapses and a general election is called.
The limit on cow numbers emerged in a leaked government document prepared for negotiations with farmers and obtained by the NOS broadcaster.
It quotes research from Wageningen University & Research, which found that the Dutch livestock sector needed to shrink by up to 30 per cent and all the mooted measures be implemented to hit targets for nitrogen, climate and water.
Officials and farmers’ organisations are locked in talks over an agricultural agreement to reduce pollution in the sector up to 2040.
Negotiations are particularly difficult because they are over changes to ensure nitrogen emissions are halved to meet EU targets for 2030, which triggered the farmers’ tractor protests.
Press leak ‘not helpful’
Piet Adema, the minister for agriculture, reacted angrily to the leak, which revealed the government was also considering lower emission stables, reducing pesticides and improving manure processing.
“I am incredibly disappointed that there is a leak. I don’t know where it came from, but it is bad because it is not helpful to the process,” he told MPs.
“We are still negotiating. Everything is still in motion,” said the minister, who wanted a deal this month as talks began in December last year.
£5.8 billion cost
The leak revealed that Mr Adema believes the Agricultural Agreement will cost the government £5.8 billion plus another £521 million for “ecosystem services”.
This money would be paid to farmers for rewilding areas of their land, managing ditches and ponds, and creating habitats for insects and birds, but it has not been approved by the government.
Another area of disagreement is whether the right to keep animals can be transferred to people other than family members if a farm is closed.
Mr Rutte has already earmarked £22 billion by 2035 for measures such as farm buyouts and reducing livestock numbers.
Nitrogen is also caused by construction.
Nitrogen is also caused by construction.
Construction projects to ease a housing crisis were stopped by a court order on environmental grounds and cannot resume unless action is taken to reduce emissions elsewhere, the government said.
