Sectorrapportage Duurzame Zuivelketen: Prestaties 2020 in perspectief

Through the Sustainable Dairy Chain initiative, dairy companies and dairy farmers are jointly working on a future-proof and sustainable dairy sector. In 2011, the Sustainable Dairy Chain formulated targets for 2020, relating to climate-neutral development, continuous improvement of animal health and welfare, preservation of grazing, and protection of biodiversity and the environment. This sector report shows to what extent these targets were achieved in 2020. This report also addresses the targets set by the Sustainable Dairy Chain in 2019, for the period up to 2030. Five 2020 target themes were achieved in 2020. These themes are: responsible antibiotics use, energy efficiency, grazing, responsible soy, and dairy cattle phosphate excretion. For four themes, the targets were not achieved. These are: greenhouse gas emissions, ammonia emissions, renewable energy production and dairy cow lifespan. However, progress was made on the latter two themes in 2020. The production of sustainable energy increased for the fourth year in a row and dairy cow lifespan increased for the second year in a row. A monitoring system for animal welfare and biodiversity was created, but no baseline measurements for 2020 have been carried out and no sector targets have been set as of yet. In 2020, the number of dairy cattle and the number of young stock increased by 1.0% and 1.6%, respectively, compared to 2019. This was unfavourable for the outcome of themes like greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions.