🇳🇱 The cattle breeds of the Netherlands

Cattle in the Netherlands are kept above all for milk, which becomes butter and the country's famous cheeses. They graze the flat, watered grasslands of the west, where dairying has shaped the food culture for centuries. Beef is a secondary product of a herd that helped make the Dutch a leading exporter of farm goods.

• Gouda's recorded history begins in 1184, one of the oldest cheeses still made to its recipe
• The Netherlands is the world's second-largest agricultural exporter by value
• Buttermilk and Leyden cheese both begin as leftovers of butter-making
• Zeeland and South Holland butter carries a high share of milkfat
• Edam, sold in small waxed rounds, has been made since the 14th century

Cattle in the Netherlands

Cattle keeping in the Netherlands sits inside a farm economy that also runs glasshouses, field crops, orchards and fishing fleets. The animals are kept for milk, butter, cheese and meat, and the flat, well-watered grassland of the low west suits them well. Milk and butter from the damp meadows of Holland and Friesland shaped the cooking here centuries ago: where German and English kitchens reached for bacon fat and southern Europe for oil, Dutch cooks used butter. That dairy base still marks the western provinces, where the land is at its best for raising cattle. Cheeses and butters from these herds now carry European protection, from Gouda and Edam down to boerenkaas, the farmer's cheese, while the young versions of Gouda and Edam keep the milky taste of full-fat milk.

Regions and communities

Cattle country lies mostly in the west: North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and the Betuwe corner of Gelderland. Each area's cheeses took the names of the towns where they were sold. Gouda has a recorded history reaching back to 1184, and Edam, made in small waxed rounds, since the fourteenth century; the northern version, Noord-Hollandse Gouda, now holds EU protection. Zeeland and South Holland churn a butter with a high milkfat share, which explains the region's heavy, buttery biscuits and pastries. Leyden cheese, spiced with cumin, grew from the skimmed milk left over when butter was made.

Milk, butter and beef

Milk is the head product, turned into butter and a family of cheeses. Gouda and Edam are the famous names, made with full-fat milk so the young versions taste milky; kanterkaas adds cumin or clove, and boerenkaas is the farm-made sort. Leyden cheese comes from skimmed milk and shares its origin with buttermilk, a by-product of churning butter that the western provinces drink and bake with. Zeeland and South Holland butter is notably high in milkfat. The animals also supply beef, listed alongside milk, butter and cheese as the reasons the Dutch keep cattle.

Today

Dairy sits near the heart of a farm sector that has made the Netherlands the world's second-largest agricultural exporter by value. Cheeses sold as Gouda or Edam are now made around the globe, but the Dutch names carry European protection: Gouda Holland and Edam Holland as geographical indications, Noord-Hollandse Gouda and kanterkaas as protected designations of origin, and boerenkaas as a guaranteed traditional speciality. Young cheeses still rely on full-fat milk.