At twenty percent of the Drenthe dairy farms, cows were not allowed to go out to pasture last year. That share is roughly the same as last year, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). The larger the dairy farm in our province, the smaller the chance of being allowed to enter the pasture.
Nationally, 75 percent of the cows were out on pasture last year. That percentage has increased for the sixth year in a row. In 2015, for example, 65 percent of dairy cows were out on pasture.
Statistics Netherlands has a comment to make, because on average cows spend fewer hours outside. In 2021, a grazing cow spent an average of 1,300 hours in the meadow, compared to more than 1,700 hours in 2013. This is mainly because cows more often graze in the meadow during the day, instead of day and night.
A cow that only grazes in the meadow during the day gets about 7 hours of grazing. For a cow that is outside day and night, that is 17 hours. According to the statistical office, the reduced number of hours has to do with the size of the farms. The larger the size, the less grassland is often available at the farm to allow unrestricted cows to graze. The animals are then placed in the stable, for example for milking.
The provinces where cows have the best chance of grazing in the pasture are Utrecht, North and South Holland. There, between 93 and 97 percent of dairy farms use pasture grazing. Flevoland (47 percent) and the three southernmost provinces (between 69 and 77 percent) have the smallest share of farms where cows graze in the pasture. Cows usually have the least space available there for grazing.