Biodiversity conservation

For the objective 100% responsible soy

100% responsible soy in feed has been obligatory for Dutch dairy cattle since 2015. This was accomplished by a cooperation between the Sustainable Dairy Chain, WWF, Solidaridad and Natuur&Milieu.

For the objective stay within the environmental preconditions:

¹ This concerns 100% of the dairy farmers who supply the milk they produce to one of the dairy processing companies associated with the NZO (delivery condition).

• The phosphate excretion of the dairy cattle population decreased to 75.5 million kg in 2019 and is therefore amply (9.4 million kg, 11.1%) below the sector limit of 84.9 million kg.
• The phosphate excretion of the entire dairy farming sector was reduced to 155.5 million kg in 2019. This brings the phosphate excretion for 2019 below the European limit of 172.9 million kg for the third year in a row. This is 17.4 million kg (10.1%) below the limit.
• The ammonia emission of the dairy cattle population of 53.5 million kg considerably (11.2 million kg) exceeds the objective of 5 million kg reduction compared to 2011 (= 42.3 million kg).

For the objective no net loss of biodiversity:

• A monitoring instrument at individual business level, the Biodiversiteitsmonitor [Biodiversity Monitor], has been delivered and is available. A national registration system for the KPIs herb-rich grassland and nature and landscape management is under development. An integral scoring method at sector level is not available yet, so no baseline measurement has been done and no objectives at sector level have been defined yet.

NB Results compared to sector objectives 2030 are not available yet.

Sustainable cattle feed

With the scope ‘Responsible dairy cattle feed’, dairy companies associated with the Sustainable Dairy Chain have included the GMP+ MI103 in their quality systems (GMP+, 2019) as from 1 January 2015. Feed suppliers complying with the GMP+ MI103 are on a whitelist of companies that are allowed to supply to the Dutch dairy farmers. One of the conditions of the GMP+ MI103 is that all purchased soy must be certified in accordance with the RTRS criteria or equivalent. Here Segregation, Mass Balance as well as Book & Claim are accepted as models.

The Sustainable Dairy Chain is working together with, among others, IUCN, Solidaridad and local NGOs in a pilot that is investigating how area-focused mass balance (or Area Mass Balance) might work in a vulnerable area, being the Chaco, in Argentina.

Produce in conformity with the environmental preconditions

• With respect to ammonia, the dairy sector feels the urgency and therefore wants to actively work together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality on a solution for the current situation and on substantially reducing the emission of ammonia. The sector will in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality set up a realistic approach for the short and the longer terms in order to actualise this emission reduction.
• Production below the phosphate and nitrogen limits has been regulated at legal level.
• The Animal Nutrient Cycling Assessment provides the dairy farmer insight into the performance of his farm with respect to environment and climate. The dashboard includes six environmental indicators:
  • Nitrogen soil surplus
  • Ammonia (kg per LU and ha)
  • Ammonia (kg per ha)
  • Greenhouse gases per kg measuring milk
  • Percentage of permanent grassland
  • Percentage of protein from own land
• The results of the Animal Nutrient Cycling Assessment provide dairy farmers more insight into their operations, allowing them to better drive towards:
  • Healthy soil
  • Higher grass yield and savings on the purchase of roughage
  • Savings in the purchasing of fertiliser and/or disposal of manure
  • Entrepreneurship with the future in mind
  • Financial advantage by increasing the margin with savings or by participating in sustainability programmes of dairy companies

Biodiversity conservation

The Sustainable Dairy Chain has developed the Biodiversiteitsmonitor [Biodiversity Monitor] in cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Rabobank. The Biodiversiteitsmonitor Melkveehouderij [Biodiversity Monitor Dairy Farming] measures the impact of an individual dairy farm on the biodiversity of the farm and outside by means of performance indicators.

7 performance indicators

1. Greenhouse gas emission (CO₂-eq per kg measuring milk)
2. Nitrogen soil surplus (kg N per ha)
3. Ammonia emission (kg NH₃ per ha)
4. Percentage of protein from own land (% of total fed feed)
5. Percentage of permanent grassland (% of the total farm area)
6. Percentage of nature and landscape management (% of the total farm area)
7. Percentage of herb-rich grassland (% of the total farm area)

With the biodiversity monitor the performance of dairy farmers for preservation of nature and landscape can be clarified in a uniform way. Apart from making the (positive or negative) impact on the surroundings measurable, the monitor offers actual business measures that dairy farmers may take to improve biodiversity. These are, for instance, measures such as enlarging the permanent grassland area in the building plan, overseeding of clover in the grassland and postponing the first cut. In this way the monitor offers the dairy farmer an action perspective.

The monitor allows for rewarding individual performance of dairy farmers by parties other than dairy companies as well. An accumulation of rewards may give biodiversity an impulse.

By aiming at more land-related dairy farming, the need for raw materials for feed coming from other parts of the world decreases. With this the sector makes a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation elsewhere.