Episode 08 (Season 2) - Farming & Policy - How to Navigate Farming Regulations

Farmers in Europe are under pressure. Governments begin to introduce plans to reduce livestock numbers to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

This has led to protests by farmers in The Netherlands and highlighted the conflict between environmental policy and the needs of agriculture and food production.

But how do farmers adapt to these new policies? Could choosing smaller, more feed-efficient breeds be the solution?

To discuss this, we’ll be talking to a cattle breeding expert and farmer from the Netherlands, and a senior breeder and product manager with more than 30 years of experience with Jersey cows.

Guests:
Walter Liebregts, CEO and Owner of Koole & Liebregts
Peter Larson, Product Manager for VikingJersey, at VikingGenetics

Host:
Hielke Wiersma

Transcript

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Farmers in Europe are under pressure. Governments introduced plans to reduce livestock numbers to limit greenhouse gas emissions. This has led to protests by farmers in the Netherlands and highlighted the conflict between environmental policies and the needs of agriculture and food production. But how do farmers adapt to these new policies? Is Could choosing smaller, more feed efficient dairy breeds be the solution? To discuss this topic, we'll be speaking to a cattle breeding expert and farmer from the Netherlands and a senior breeding and product manager with more than 30 years of experience with Jersey cows. Walter Liebregts, CEO and owner of Koole & Liebregts in the Netherlands, and Peter Larson, product manager for VikingJersey at VikingGenetics. This is the BreedCast produced by VikingGenetics. I'm your host Hielke Wiersma. Welcome to both of you. It's great to have you with us. Thank you. Thank you. Walter, let’s start with you. Shortly, tell us what you and your company do in Holland. Yeah, we have, in fact, two companies. One is called K&L and there we sell semen to dairymen. And the other one is GenHotel. And there we're more focused on making our own AI Holstein genes to provide to AI services all over Europe. Today, I'll speak mostly from K&L’s point of view, because that's what we do for VikingGenetics and all the selling the products you provide us with among other providers. Yeah. What are the main products that you're focusing on for sales? If we talk on breed levels, then the main would be Montbeliarde, Holstein, VikingRed and VikingJersey. And of course the beef breeds. But that's not so much breeding, but just for making beef. All right. So to get that clear, that's very good. Walter, you have a long career within the cattle breeding. Most of your life has been within genetics and cattle breeding. Tell us what has changed in your mind? What are the major things that have changed in your time? Well, the biggest change was in the beginning of my career. I'm talking about 1980 and 1990. That was the decade where the Holstein was important from the U.S., Canada and also brought us much more production and better udders and a lot of more size that was then wanted. There was apparently a positive correlation between size and production or appreciation, and that was the major change then later.... Well, I've never been a fan of a certain breed, so I always try to provide my clients what their needs are on that certain period. Later - and now I'm talking around 2000 - we saw that the Holstein did not only bring us very good things. The fertility, the health issues. That was a challenge. And then we started crossbreeding with Montbeliardes in the beginning. And from 2010 we started with ProCROSS and well, we can see that that works quite well in many herds. Later - that's around ten years ago - we also started with a sales of Jerseys, and the Jersey has always been penalized in Holland because of our fat quota system. In order to produce milk, you need a fat quota. And since the Jersey produces more fat and protein in relation compared to Holsteins, the Jerseys were not so advantageous in our system. That changed. And now we see a big..., well growth in our sales of Jerseys. And that's mainly or that's also due to the whole situation that is in Holland at the moment with the current political situation where the Dutch farmers are facing challenges. Tell us about those challenges. What's going on in Holland at the moment? Yeah we are all afraid about the Green Deal from the European Commission. In Holland, there are many Natura 2000 areas. I don't know whether you're familiar with that. That's preserved nature where we... Well, it's not allowed to have any changes there. They are very much protected areas. Now we have quite a few and we have quite a few people and quite a few animals. So that is, well, let's say a small war for surface. And the European Commission has given us some laws, perhaps guidelines to be less polluting in the sense of nitrogen. That's now the most health issue phosphate wash. Now it's nitrogen, but actually the future's methane or CO2 or whatever for all these polluting by-effects from producing milk are now under discussion. But we are in the beginning of the discussion and the goal is to achieve certain... Well, let's say reductions between now and 2035. So it's quite a long time that we have the possibility to adapt. That is no fixed scheme or route or laws to say this is what you must do. So the farmers still are very much in question. How can I adapt and what is it that they want from me? What does the government expect? So in 2022 there were huge protests. Farmers on the motorways, blocking everything. Stuff that really reached global news. What were they protesting for? Well, to the global feeling that they are not appreciated The government says you have to deduct they haven't presented the plan yet or method how to do it.

But the message was clear: 6:27

we need less animals. How and which animals, whether it should be pigs or cows or poultry. That's not clear. But the farmers felt attacked in their neighborhoods and communities, in their way of life. And they organized themselves. And the outcome was indeed a protest on a massive scale. And we have not seen the end of that. Next weekend, there's again, protests and we have elections next week. So there's always things moving. What are the consequences for the farmers if these policies are made reality? Well, probably the first consequence will be that the government will publish a list with the big polluters. So the farms that are most polluting closest to the nature areas. And then there will be a voluntary program if you want to stop your farm, you can say, okay, I want to stop when I’m 55. I have no successor and the government buys your herd and your land and will turn it into nature or other projects. That's the first step. It is not so severe because many of these farmers didn't have a successor anyway. So for the personal life of the farmer, it's perhaps a welcome idea. But the problem could be for the sector that the government will take the animal production rights out of the market. So that's what's going on in Holland. Peter, with your experience and the contacts that you have across Europe, how do you see this evolving? Well, I see that it is evolving and the basis for evolving and doing change is coming up with more restrictions is that you actually know the emissions per cow per breed. And in contradiction to Walter, I am actually a fan of one of the breeds. I've been working with the Jerseys all through my career, and they prove they are more efficient when it comes to emissions than other breeds. We started out measuring livestock units 20 years ago in Denmark. And livestock units was based on emissions of nitrogen, showing that the Jerseys were 20% more efficient than bigger cows. Today, our restrictions are not only based on nitrogen emission, it's based on several things affecting the environment. But restrictions nowadays are giving you a license to produce relating to how much emission, and relates to how much land per cow, how much space in bonds per cow, how much manure can you spread per hectare. So it's more a total emission based, license to produce system we have today than the original livestock unit. Walter, it seems like in other countries- I recently heard about stuff going on in Ireland - we've heard about the New Zealand and different places, you know, with the same kind of political agenda. In your mind, what can we learn from the situation that you have in the Netherlands? Well, I would like to go a step back and first think what is the real problem? And in Europe, at least in Holland and in more Western European countries, the problem is that we import a lot of feed and we produce milk. And then you can, of course, as Peter does, discuss, how efficient are we doing that? The question is, will the governments allow us to keep on importing all these feedstuffs from Brazil and wherever they come from, Ukraine... And if we continue that, then we of course are kept with minerals too much and you can it emission or whatever you call it. But that's this balance and what we are doing and I think politicians wants to balance that. Then there's two points I want to make. Of course, we have to look to the efficiency of the breeds. And smaller cows like Jerseys are, without any question, more efficient, so less methane or whatever the problem could be. But the second question I have, if it comes to the breeds, which one fits the best in a lower input system? So if you have a high producing herd, you need a lot of input of feed from Brazil to call it simple; Brazil. But if we stop that and we need to feed our cows more a grass oriented menu. So the ratio is perhaps a little bit silage maize and more and more grass, grass, grass. Then we have to look which breeds fit better the grass ratio. And in my experience we can see that in Holland two third of our arable ground is only fitted for grass because grass is speed and it's too heavy clay. So grass is essential in the new cow industry in northwestern Europe, I would say. And we see that the Holstein is having a problem with converting and only living from grass and they get too frail, fertility goes down. So it's not only a question of efficiency, but it's also a question of... you have to ask yourself which cow fits in my system? And if the system is less input and more roughage and lower quality roughage because you have less manure to give to the land and to make your crops, that's an issue which is quite new in breeding. We talked like Peter did, always about efficiency, but then we have high-input systems and we feed them as much as possible and then they are efficient, but the feeding will change. It will be less quality input feeding because there's competition with human feeding. Peter? Yeah, I could add to that but this is where we can actually change the situation by affecting policy. And I think that during the later years we have had a lot of support to research and develop in development, in systems where you feed the cows differently. We are experts in feed efficiency when it comes to feeding the cows a mixed ratio like we do in not Western Europe, but when it comes to cows grazing, then we do not know where we are. Are our cows efficient enough? And I think policymakers will help us get those results in new and coming research projects; which cows which breeds are the ones doing better on grazing conditions? But perhaps we know more than you guess. In Denmark, that is a high production per cow. It's the highest in Europe. It's around 11,000 kilos or so. In Holland, we are 2000 kilos lower. Not that we have much genes for production, but we have other methods of producing the milk and organic farms with a lot of grass. No maize, it’s more common in Holland than it is in Denmark. And there we do see in our daily practice quite differences between breeds. And that's interesting because I feel that is going to be a change towards those breeds that are not only efficient but also more capable to work in a poorer environment. So we've talked about the policy that impacts the Dutch farmers and we've briefly talked about other breeds. Let's have a look at that a bit more. Walter, the consequences of what is happening in Holland, what are the farmers doing to adapt? At the moment, I would say not enough or very little because they don't know exactly how to adapt. There is this pressure from government and EU, but there are no really guidelines or they are not really, let's say, strict rules where you have to perform. So they are a bit in a phase that they don't know what to do. And then I always tell them, if you don't do nothing, you're sure that you will not be with the winners. You have to adapt, although it's not sure what exactly the rules will be. But what is clear, as we just said, that efficiency will always be advantageous for you, whether it will be efficiency or methane, CO2 or phosphore. It doesn't matter. If a cow needs less food to make the same volume of kilos, fat and protein, that's always better. So breeding direction, there is what we advise. Peter, from a geneticist’s point of view, how can breeding and how can we as a breeding company be part of the solution for this? Developing breeding values that make it possible for farmers to achieve the goals. And it's very important that farmers are aware how to get the highest genetic trend or highest genetic development for an individual trait. Go directly for the trait. Now we've developed the Saved Feed index. The Saved Feed index will lead to more efficient cows, but will also lead to less emission. Some farmers think that if you focus on the Saved feed index and feed efficiency, then you might lose some production. But that's not necessarily the truth. If you focus on the goals, the direct breeding values for individual traits that you prioritize, then you will have a positive trait for both. And tell us about the Jerseys, Peter. With your experience, what is it that makes them a particularly good option in this situation to adapt? When looking at previous research results, not only on nitrogen and phosphate where Jerseys are 20% or even more on phosphate better than bigger breeds, then we have indications that when it comes to methane, CO2, that they are producing less methane CO2 per kg of live weight per kilogram of energy corrected milk. But that also counts for the feed efficiency when measured like we do in our new system, where we have a Saved feed index combining the metabolic part and the maintenance part, the maintenance part relates to the size of the cow and it's quite clear the big cows, they are less efficient than the more medium sized cows. When it comes to the metabolic part, we measure the feed intake on individual cows by using 3D cameras and the photos derived from that. So we get very, very accurate figures on how the cows perform, both on feed efficiency and also on the emission. This does count for across breeds, but the medium size are more efficient, but within breeds, if you have a Holstein breed and medium sized Holstein cows will be more efficient, more climate friendly than the bigger Holstein cows. Walter, there are a lot of Jerseys being exported from Denmark to Holland. With this taken into account that the Jersey is very efficient, tell us how the Jersey fits into the market in Holland. Yeah, at this moment our milk check is based on kilos of fat and protein and we have seen a higher value for the fat recently than it was in the past. So the ration for the Jersey is going better and better. Peter's talking about the breeding programs and they have responsibility to develop the breeding values for feed efficiency. The farmer does not want to wait that long. Breeding programs are great, but it takes very long to have results. It's 10-20 years before you really have changed your animal. If you change the breed or you start crossbreeding, there is an immediate effect and we see that. Well, more and more farmers are less attached to the breed they had in the past. It was almost a religion to have a certain breed, and now it's more what shows me the best at this moment. And more people are ready to change the breed in one day from Holsteins to Jerseys or start crossbreeding or whatever. And that's what we really see as a very fast and bigger step than by breeding programs which are very necessary and it's good that they do that. But it takes them well I won't lift if Holsteins have the same feed efficiency as Jerseys nowadays and they have that I'm pretty sure. And it's a different level talking to a farmer and talking to a breeding guy. And a farmer, if he wants a quick fix, he should immediately change his breed. And you mentioned crossbreeding. You've done a lot with crossbreeding; ProCROSS, VikingGoldenCross as well. Tell us about that. How does that fit in and what are the advantages of crossbreeding? Yeah, if you first look to the feed efficiency, we know that with ProCROSS you can gain 8% in the conversion between food intake and milk output. Milk corrected energy output. You're referring to the studies of Minnesota. And we see the same in Holland. Where we have more practical experience on large scale. Feed efficiency on a dairy has very much to do with the number of young stock you need for the milk production. If you have a longer life time for your production cows, let's say a year longer, it saves you a lot of young stock and young stock only eat and shit. Efficiency is not the case in young stock. So that's a big step. If you go with ProCROSS, it's more the longevity gain than the feed efficiency in the cow itself. That's 8%. If we look to the VikingGoldenCross, then the Jersey comes in and the Montbeliarde goes out. My guess is that the feed efficiency is around 15% better than a pure Holstein because of the Jersey being introduced. And on top of that we see that that longevity of the VikingGoldenCross is even better. So you need less youngstock. So that's also quite a quick fix. In all these advices we do, we have to take in consideration not only feed costs but also housing costs and labor and most, not all crossings, but most crossings and Jerseys produce, per cow less kg, fat and protein. So you must be able to have a few cows more in your barn. If that's not possible, then you have to do quite a serious calculation where the money goes. So it's not only looking to feed efficiency, it's also looking to, well, a prosperous dairy industry for the farm. And I think one of the interesting points that you bring out is the switching of the breed to make something happen very quickly. And I think also one of the things that we're pushing from VikingGenetics is the use of sexed semen both on the female side and on the beef side. You know, so to have more females from the best animals. Peter, what's your take on the use of sexed and beef? Oh what I support it a lot and we have come very far. We are among the populations in the Nordic countries using the most sexed semen. And these modern strategies with sexed semen on your best animals... Actually you could reduce it to sexed semen on your 30% best cows and heifers. And it has to be heifers because you want to breed the better next generation and then beef on the rest. In Denmark, the Jersey population here, 95% of the Jersey used is sexed semen and 50% of the Jerseys are bred to beef. So we have come far. We see that spread to other populations in Europe slowly, but it's coming. And I think because of the Jersey bull calves having very little value or no value, that it has been adapted quicker in the Jersey breed than in other breeds. So now we've looked at the specifics about why the smaller breeds like the Jersey or the crossbreds can be beneficial for the transition of the political agenda. Let's have a look at some of the points where the Dutch... We've discussed the Dutch situation and explored some of the situations where the farmers used to adapt and overcome these and new emission policies. Walter, how can the Dutch farmers, as well as the rest of Europe, benefit from this situation? Well, the first question, and that's still an open question, is what are going to be the rules from the government to strict in our industry. For example, if they say you may have so many animals per hectare, that's quite another choice, than if they say you can produce so many kilos of milk or so many kilos of fat and protein per hectare. If you talk about Jersey, you like to have the kilo of fat and protein per hectare and if you talk about liters per hectare you like the Holsteins best. So, it's still a bit early to say that's the direction to go. We need to know more about these rules coming up and again feed efficiency is 50% of your costs on the dairy so any animal that is more efficient, less youngstock or animal itself is more efficient, it will be beneficial in the future. And exactly the rules. Yeah, that is perhaps an imperfect perfectly in the system, if that might be the case that they take the wrong decision by selling liters per hectare or something like that. So that is where we have to work on the politicians to say, hey, if you really want to make a better planet, take care, use the efficient breeds. The best would be if we could convince the politicians to only use Jerseys. That would be the most efficient. But that's not going to be the case because many people think different than Peter and I do. But that would be...just from a logical point of view. It would be... we need the law that they are not allowed to do anything else. But you know how the world works. What do you think about that, Peter? I can follow, Walter, but...well, of course it could be nice with all Jersey. That's not going to happen. And I like all breeds, but I think the future will prove that the Jerseys will be more efficient and will fit better under most conditions. But there will still be plenty of room for others. Peter, then what do you think? Going forward in this discussion of emissions and stuff like that...what are the farmers... what should the farmers be focusing on? Right now I think they should focus on the saved feed index, implement that in their breeding goal and make use of it. But I'm glad that what Walter mentioned earlier about longevity because at this stage it is important to think of the effect of longer living animals and replacement rate going down that also the offspring that you produce actually affects environment. So if you can reduce the number of offspring needed, then it will have a positive climate impact. What would you advice, Walter, what should the farms focus on? If you really want to make a difference...we know that, for example, with Jerseys, we have farms that are 40% more feed efficient than compared with the Holsteins on these farms. So, yeah, you need to calculate and you need to see what's happening on my farm with my land and my labor, with my barns and with my production capacity. And very often other breeds than the Holstein are superior. But a simple fix is too simple, you need to watch the typical situation of that farm. Peter, you had a comment. It was more about the future and the trends because we are working on a new index. I called it an emission index earlier. We have this research and development project right now where we measure CO2 and methane on cows when they eat their concentrate in milking robots. It's a project started the year ago and we think that it will show that there are some cows producing less CO2 and methane per kg of energy corrected milk. It will be a very, very useful tool to reduce emissions when we introduce this index. I hope that it'll be coming within the next year. Walter, what are your final thoughts on breeding trends going forward for the future, for the long term? Yeah, I am pretty convinced that the dormancy of Holsteins will be less in all countries all over the world, because of feed efficiency, we have more and more people to feed. We have 7,000,000 billion and we get more and more. On average, the people in the world get wealthier. So they want more exclusive food like dairy products or even beef or meat. So we have a challenge there. And then feed efficiency is in competition with humans, and it will be the new factor to decide which genes you're going to use or what your breeding goal is or which breed you're going to use. That's really a changing point now. Thank you for joining us on the BreedCast today. We hope you enjoyed our discussion on how changing policies in Europe impact farmers and potential solutions for adapting to these changes. Don't forget to visit VikingGenetics.com for more information. Thank you, Walter and thank you, Peter, for sharing your valuable knowledge with us and for everybody for tuning in. I've been your host; Hielke Wiersma. If you have an idea for a future topic, please visit Breedcast.com or message us on our VikingGenetics Facebook page. Stay tuned for our next episode about the future of farming in 2040 and the trends shaping the beef and dairy industry. Thank you and have a great day.