Dairy Farms

Stimulated by postwar agricultural policies, a Dutch landscape of small dairy farms gave way to an efficient, booming production machine relying on rationalisation and mechanization. Challenged by the European milk quota system in the 1980s, the sector’s focus shifted from expansion to achieving greater efficiency. Cutting costs yet increasing milk yields per cow was attained by concentrating in fewer, bigger farms and by integrating new breedings techniques and adopting new technologies, particularly the milking robot—a Dutch invention. Despite the recent abolition of quotas, high labour costs and new regulatory pressure for cleaner and sustainable production pushes farms to keep increasing their size and rely even more on automation technologies in order to remain competitive.

Greenhouses

Horticulture is one of the top sectors in the Dutch economy, with more than a third of its production concentrated in one single cluster, Westland. Increasing labour costs, scarcity of qualified personnel, competition, and the impossibility of spatial growth are leading the sector to specialize and achieve higher productivity per square meter by means of automation and digitization of operations. While the number of horticultural businesses, total production area, and demand for labour have decreased since 2000, the average size of companies and their footprint keeps growing, resulting in larger greenhouses and informal processes of land consolidation.

Research Team

Research department, Het Nieuwe Instituut: Marina Otero Verzier, Marten Kuijpers, Ludo Groen, Emma Paola Flores Herrera & Chris Zogopoulos, TU Delft: Víctor Muñoz Sanz & Grace Abou Jaoudeh.