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VION Food Group VION Fresh Meat NL VION Fresh Meat DE VION Convenience VION UK Rendac Sonac Rousselot

Cattle Farming

Cattle farming in the Netherlands has two branches: dairy farming and beef farming. Within beef farming we distinguish between red meat from adult cattle, and pink and white meat from calves. In total there are around 3.8 million cattle in the Netherlands. These are mainly for dairy farming.

The farming of pink and white meat calves relates to animals that come from Dutch dairy farming and from abroad. Red beef cattle farmers almost always buy animals from specific meat-type breeds such as Limousin, Charolais and Blonde d’Aquitaine when they are approximately 8 months old. These are the so-called weanlings, which mainly come from abroad.

Cattle farming in North West Europe has undergone major change in recent decades. This has to do with the milk quota, policy on manure and European subsidy policy. In the Netherlands, the number of cattle has been fairly stable for several years. There is talk of expansion of the cattle companies.
The VION Fresh Meat site in Tilburg processes animals from dairy farming and from red beef cattle farming.

Collaboration along the chain
Food safety and traceability are of paramount importance to us. This requires collaboration with reliable, professional partners in the chain, such as the beef cattle farmers and the dealers.
Almost all of them are Dutch companies who operate in accordance with quality standards. One example is the KKM (Quality Milk Chain) quality system in dairy farming.