Dutch dairy farmers’ perspectives on culling reasons and strategies

Since the abolishment of the milk quota system in Europe in 2014 and the introduction of environmental policies such as the phosphate rights system in the Netherlands, the reasons for culling dairy cows might have changed. The aim of this study was to determine the culling reasons for dairy cattle and to identify farmers’ culling strategies and their intentions regarding the alteration of indicated culling strategies. To this end, an online questionnaire was distributed among dairy farmers nationally that resulted in 207 responses. Results showed that the most frequent culling reasons were rel... Mehr ...