The number of dairy goats in the Netherlands has increased again. There are 476,000 this year, which is 4 percent more than a year ago. In the past two decades, the number of dairy goats has increased almost continuously, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics on Friday.
Only in 2010 was there a 10 percent decrease in the number of dairy goats. This was due to the culls in connection with Q fever. In the other years the number of dairy goats did increase.
On average, companies in the dairy goat sector are also getting bigger. In 2000, the average dairy goat farm still had 117 goats, now there are 837. There are a total of 569 farms with dairy goats.
The increasing number of goats being kept in the Netherlands is due to the popularity of goat dairy, explains dairy goat farmer Jos Tolboom. The demand for goat cheese and milk is constantly increasing, he says. It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue. Governments are reluctant to grant permits for extensions.
Most dairy goats can be found in Noord-Brabant and Gelderland. No fewer than 40 percent of the farms with dairy goats are located in those provinces, and more than half of the dairy goats are kept in our country. Ede is the dairy goat capital of the Netherlands, there are no fewer than 16,500 to be found there.
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