r/dairyfarming

We go through a LOT of milk in our house.
We drink a lot and cook a lot. (I love my strawberry Nesquik lol)

Over the past several months, most milk has an extremely strong smell/taste almost like urine/ammonia. So bad I can't even use it. I'm talking gallons of whole milk from all different brands and stores. (Nowhere near expiration dates either. This is all the time, not infrequent.)
Nobody else in the house can smell or taste it but me!

It's really weird.

What's even weirder... I've just happened to notice that jugs with this symbol "Ⓤ"are always fine.🤔
Sometimes its even milk from the same brand, but one jug has this symbol while the other doesn't. It's literally never the ones with the symbol that taste bad.

Does anybody know what is going on with this?

If you thought the Dutch farmer regulatory crisis was cooling down, think again. The cabinet has laid out its final cards specifically targeting the dairy industry, and it is a massive wake-up call.

According to the newly released details in the document "Verdiepingsbijlage Hoofdlijn 1 -Emissiereductie in de landbouw industrie en mobiliteit.docx", the government is completely abandoning vague, country-wide sector goals. Instead, they are implementing a system of farm-specific accountability, giving individual dairy farmers hard emission limits that become legally enforceable in 2035.

Here is the brutal reality of what Dutch dairy farmers are facing:

1. The Hard Caps (Tied to Phosphate Rights)

Every single dairy farm will have an individual emission target calculated directly per phosphate right. The exact limits are set to 0.164 kg NH3 (ammonia) and 92 kg CO2-eq per phosphate right per year for barn and storage emissions. The government explicitly admits that these targets are so aggressive that the vast majority of dairy farmers will be forced to fundamentally rebuild or heavily modify their barns and change their entire daily management routine just to survive legally.

2. The 2.6 GVE Land Crunch

To limit livestock density, the government is introducing a strict groundboundness norm.

Animal density will be hard-capped at a maximum of 2.6 GVE per hectare. (Quick explainer for non-farmers: GVE stands for Grootvee-eenheid / Livestock Unit. It’s a standard baseline where 1 mature dairy cow = 1 GVE, while younger cattle count as a smaller fraction based on their feed and manure impact. Essentially, farmers are now limited to roughly 2.6 adult cows per hectare).

This land crunch will hit intensive dairy operations like a freight train. If a farm exceeds this limit, they are legally forced to find an arable farmer within a strict 25 km radius to sign manure-sharing partnership contracts.

To make matters more difficult, dairy farms located on vulnerable sandy or loess soils face a mandatory 85% grassland or grains obligation on their acreage.

This restriction will be phased in starting with a major step in 2030, a second step in 2032, and full enforcement by 2035.

3. Techno-Fixes vs. Organic Realities

The new rules are creating a massive divide in how dairy farms must operate. Intensive farms are being heavily pushed toward millions of euros in technological fixes—combining daily manure flushing, mono-digesters, and processing waste into "Renure" synthetic-replacement fertilizers to get a regulatory break. Meanwhile, the government openly acknowledges that these rigid math models and KPIs completely screw over organic and extensive dairy farmers, because chemical additives and industrial tech digesters explicitly violate European organic farming regulations.

4. The Nuclear Option: Forced Herd Downsizing

The absolute biggest stick in this policy is what the government calls the "ultimate remedy". If the dairy sector fails to meet its broader 42–46% nitrogen reduction target by 2035, the cabinet will bypass warnings and execute forced, mandatory cuts directly to individual phosphate and animal rights. In plain terms: if the sector misses the mark, the government will legally force farmers to downsize their herds and get rid of their cows.

While the state is offering a €2 billion support pot for innovation across the wider livestock sector, the underlying threat of forced herd liquidations is a massive escalation.

What do you think? Is tying environmental targets to individual phosphate rights fairer than blanket country-wide cuts, or is the threat of forced herd downsizing going to push the Dutch dairy sector completely over the edge and reignite the massive tractor protests? Let's discuss.

I am an agniveer in army and going to retire in a year I am planning to open a dairy farm with the money I get I have rough investment of 15lakhs. Here are the things I already have -

A big 3.5acre agricultural land on outskirt of my tier 2 city.

The land is currently being used for farming crops like wheat and rice both rabi.

I have a 2 room house

Can get basic green and dry fodder (bhoosa) through the crops as I won't be using whole land for dairy only half a acre

Things I need -

I just need to put on a shed

Buy the cattle which yield good amount of milk and require less care other than occasional checkups and insemination

Get a labour to milk the cattles

I have my old mother and father living there and they might help as well for few years until the business settles

I need a rough cost for the cattles and their premium fodder (chokar, khali, pashu ahar and all) and if any other idea of business I can do with the money and land because it's all I have in my hand.

I am from madhya pradesh District - rewa

When liming the beds I get it blown in my eyes. We have crap goggles and masks but want to invest in some good reusable googles and mask that won’t steam up. Any suggestions?

Hello. Our family dairy cow, Avery, (Dexter breed) recently had her calf in the woods. This would have made her third calf. We have walked the woods (nearly 100 acres) every day for over a week: we can not find the calf. Typically, she would have brought the calf to the barn by now (the cows come to the barn every evening for water and feed). I'm assuming the calf died or the coyotes got it. That being said, I am trying to determine if the calf is possibly still alive by the look of Avery's udder. While her udder was engorged over a week ago, it looks like the typical new mama udder full...but not too full. The udder and nipples are staying clean of debris/mud. The udder is full but the teats are staying empty. Would this indicate their is still a calf in the woods?

It has to be said that the Friesland region has a high concentration of industries. What will the future hold for the dairy industry in the entire Netherlands? With inflation becoming increasingly severe, I really can't see the future. What will happen to the children if they don't have milk to drink?

Hi All,
i am thinking of opening a Dairy and my production of dailry products like milk, paneer and ghee, and planning to extend it to a whey manufacturing plant.

Background : I am a SDE, working in a startup feels like getting poor, every day can't think of marriage, because of cost of living in bangalore, every day there is a price hike on something.

Any one here with exxpirence in this domain , who can help, or help me identify is this idea crap. i mean , Akshaykalpa has grown as a brand, why not a new one.

I’ve been looking into different maintenance schedules, and I’m curious—how strict are you with your preventive maintenance for balers/mowers? Do you stick to the manual’s hour-based service, or do you run it until something starts sounding "off"?

Quick question for dairy farmers:
How do you manage reproduction after calving and keep days open under control?
What tools or software do you use to track cows and avoid missing important events?

Thank you in advance for your feedbacks! 💪

I work in the UK as a 16 year old apprentice and don’t have much ideal clothes other than old scuffs. Going to stock up on good quality work wear (hot and cold). Recommendations?

Hi all! Talking with lots of dairy farmers, they always agree that the biggest problem in their farm is not the technology that they are using, nor the cows....but the people that are working.
It is pretty difficult in Italy to find skilled workers to work on dairy farms, and usually the turnover is high so each time you need to train again (and hope that the job is done correctly).
Do you feel the same around the world? How do you approach such a problem?

Hi everyone! We’re looking for a small/medium licensed scale coman for soft quark cheese in Northern California. We only need basic fresh cheese equipment (milk pasteurizer, separator, fermentation tank, press table) — centrifugal separators would be a bonus but aren’t required — plus high viscosity fillers to put the cheese into our cups. We have our own cups, labels, and will be getting a custom foil sealer. We’d also need the coman to have labor, milk suppliers, and access to testing labs (in-house or external).

If you don’t know of any, tips and advice from your experience working with comans would be hugely appreciated — what to look for, what to watch out for. We know it can be expensive, but setting up our own manufacturing with licensing and certification is risky at this stage.

Hi everyone,

I'm from the Philippines and recently graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Agribusiness. I don't have any work experience yet, but I'm very interested in working overseas in the dairy farming industry. What requirements do I need to meet to work as a dairy farmer overseas? Since I'm a fresh graduate with no experience, I'd like to know what skills, certifications, or qualifications employers usually look for. thank you!