Saturday, March 30, 2024

Marginal increase in EU dairy cow numbers

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The distribution of dairy cows in the European Union is shifting to more efficient milk producing countries rather than increasing in numbers. Taken as a whole, the number of dairy cows in the EU has increased only marginally. At the end of 2015, there were a total of 23.6 million dairy cows in the EU – an increase of just 0.3% on 2014.
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However, the distribution is shifting. Like milk production, the number of cows is falling in southern and eastern countries and increasing in the north and west.

It is less efficient to produce milk in the south and east because of warmer weather conditions.

The number of dairy cows has grown the most in Ireland and the Netherlands – Ireland by 9.9% and the Netherlands by 6.6%.

Both of these countries have continually had some of the largest growth rates in their milk production compared to the rest of the EU.

Over all of 2015, Ireland has grown its milk production 13% compared to 2014, while the Netherlands has grown its milk production 7%.

Germany, the EU’s largest milk producing region, has lost 0.3% of its dairy herd. Its milk production has grown 2% between 2014 and 2015, however, indicating that it has lost less efficient cows.

France, the second largest milk producing region, has lost 1.1% of its herd. Its milk production has been almost flat – increasing just 0.2% in 2015.

Spain has actually grown its milk production the most in percentage terms, increasing 11% between 2014 and 2015. However, Spain represents less than 5% of total EU production. It has lost just 0.1% of its dairy herd.

Similarly, Romanian milk production has fallen the most in percentage terms, declining 8%. However, the region represents just 0.6% of total EU production. Romania has lost 0.9% of its dairy herd.

Bulgaria, Estonia and Poland have had the largest declines in their dairy herds, with the number of cows decreasing 5.9%, 5.3% and 5.1% respectively.

However, there has been no corresponding decline in milk production yet, with Bulgarian and Estonian milk production declining just 1% and Polish production increasing 3%.

It is less clear whether the number of cows in other large milk-producing countries has changed significantly, since data is not yet available.

However, between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons the number of dairy cows in New Zealand increased 2%. Dairy cows in Australia increased by 3% while there was a 5% decrease in Argentina.

It is expected that the number of dairy cows in NZ will fall this season. Culling activity has been high, driven by Fonterra’s low milk price and resulting poor profitability of many farmers and expectations earlier in the season of a drought.

It’s not yet known how many cows have been culled.

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