Future-proof dairy farming sector

With the rapid developments in dairy farming, Royal A-ware believes it is essential for its dairy farmers to stay informed about best practices and innovations, enabling them to adapt their operations as needed. We are committed to contributing to the health and resilience of the dairy sector through knowledge sharing and optimising our collaboration with our dairy farmers. As a result, farmers can generate a stable family income and facilitate reinvestment. This approach will help future-proof their dairy farms and allow them to be passed on to the next generation.

Impacts, risks and opportunities

As part of our DMA, we identified the following material risk related to resilient dairy farming:

Risk

Risk of declining availability of raw milk in the longer term (e.g. business succession, legislation).

Our approach

Royal A-ware supports farmers by fostering innovation and knowledge sharing across the dairy farming sector through the Dairy Academy. Our teams work with knowledge partners and dairy farmers to set the annual Dairy Academy programme. Additionally, we work collaboratively with dairy farmers to create value throughout the entire supply chain through cooperation agreements and dedicated milk streams.

We develop various milk streams based on specific customer requirements, connecting customers to dairy farmers and building efficient, sustainable supply chains. Each stream has its own requirements, such as animal welfare or climate, and dairy farmers can choose the milk stream that best suits their operations.

Dairy farmers who participate in a milk stream receive an extra premium for the efforts required of them. In several milk streams, participation in one or more substantial gainful activities of Dairy Academy is mandatory.

The Dairy Academy policy applies to dairy farmers with whom Royal A-ware has a cooperation agreement and who have supplied milk to the Dutch and Belgian legal entities.

Dairy Academy

To provide dairy farmers with the tools and insights needed to optimise their operations and ensure long-term viability, we established the Dairy Academy in the Netherlands and Belgium. The Academy offers dairy farmers a variety of resources and learning opportunities, including workshops, webinars, excursions (available only in the Netherlands) and knowledge days that cover various aspects of dairy farming. 

The activities are developed on a country-by-country basis, ensuring they address the specific situations and needs of dairy farmers in each region. To deliver the most up-to-date knowledge and comprehensive tools, the Dairy Academy collaborates with relevant knowledge partners, which are companies recognised for their expertise in specific aspects of dairy farming, such as ration composition, financial management, or animal health and welfare.

Royal A-ware and its knowledge partners provide the financial resources to ensure free participation for the dairy farmers. For farmers located in Germany, webinars and workshops are currently organised under the Dutch Dairy Academy. We will further develop and expand these activities as more German dairy farmers join through continued active recruitment.

Objectives and actions

Royal A-ware's goal is for the dairy farming sector to be future-proof, so that financially sound farms can be passed on to future generations. To achieve this, we implement ongoing actions such as:

• Supporting our farmers in optimising their business operations and expanding in a future-proof manner through our Dairy Academy in the Netherlands and Belgium. Dairy farmers can attend workshops and webinars or participate in field trips and knowledge days on a variety of topics related to dairy farming, including herb-rich pastures, udder health and robotic milking.

• Participating in activities of Dairy Academy is rewarded via our A-ware Duurzaam programme. Via this programme Dairy farmers receive a premium for sustainability related measures that go beyond legislation.

• Organising farmer meetings to inform farmers about the performance of Royal A-ware and market developments.

• Collaborating with knowledge partners to provide our dairy farmers with the most up-to-date information. Each knowledge partner is an expert in their field, focusing on specific aspects of dairy farming such as ration composition, financial management, or animal health and welfare.

• Developing milk streams that connect customers with dairy farmers, supporting customer ambitions while contributing to resilient dairy farming.

Actions in 2025

In 2025, we carried out the following actions:

• Developed new webinars and workshops for the Dairy Academy. Each year, new educational content is developed in the form of webinars and workshops tailored to the evolving needs of our dairy farmers. New topics for the Dutch Dairy Academy include strategic entrepreneurship, claw health and dry cow comfort. New topics for the Belgium Dairy Academy include the raw materials market, and labour and protocols.

• In Belgium, the Dairy Academy has established a new partnership with MSD. In addition, the existing collaboration with Spinder has been expanded, extending its scope from the Netherlands into Belgium. Strategic partnerships help strengthen the knowledge network and enhance the value offered through the Dairy Academy.

• Launched the FarmDesk Climate tool in Belgium. The tool calculates dairy farmers’ carbon footprints, providing them with insights that enable them to work on reducing their GHG emissions.

• Launched region-specific webinars and workshops to serve the growing number of German dairy farmers.

• Explored the opportunity of launching the Dairy Academy in Spain, aligned with our strategic growth and recruitment efforts in the region.

Targets and achievements

In 2025 79% of our dairy farmers participated in a workshop or webinar of our Dairy Academy. This increase, which also means we achieved our set target for 2025, is mainly due to an increase in participation in Belgium where the Dairy Academy after the initial phase is really ramping up.