The Dutch cow kill has started to slow, but picked up again slightly in October, the latest figures from the Netherlands show.

Some 43,670 cows went to the factory in October – an increase of almost 5% year-on-year.

In early 2017, in order to reduce phosphate production from the Dutch dairy herd, the Dutch government brought in an incentive for farmers to reduce cow numbers.

This saw the number of cows going to the factory rise, with year-to-October figures showing that the cow kill was up over 16% on the same period in 2017 to 460,270 heads.

Dutch milk production

While cow numbers are falling, Dutch milk production is on an upward trend in the country and in the last year has held up relatively well despite the drop in cow numbers.

Milk production from January to August 2017 was running at 0.8% behind last year, with 9.3bn litres collected from farmers in the first eight months of 2017.

In October and November, production picked up, with production up 1.6% in October and up 1.9% in November year-on-year respectively. Production was also up in September.

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Dutch cow numbers fall but production ramps up

The pace of the Dutch cow kill has slowed since July of 2017, farmers are still being paid to cut numbers in order to reduce phosphate limits but Dutch production has increased at the end of 2017.