Netherlands: The goose population in South Holland continues to grow unabated

He himself also regularly suffers from geese, says Van Rees. The dairy farmer farms in Brandwijk, in the Alblasserwaard. 'There is a goose shelter nearby. We experience a lot of damage, especially from winter geese. But I know farmers where it is much worse. Where the first three cuts of grass are simply eaten completely bare by geese. They are really fed up with it.' A big disappointment The recent court ruling that largely halted goose management in South Holland is therefore a big disappointment for the agricultural sector. Van Rees, in his sixties, has seen the number of geese, especially the greylag, increase in recent decades. 'Somewhere in the 1980s, the greylag goose became a sedentary bird. That was welcomed at the time, just like the arrival of the badger, beaver and wolf.' But without many natural enemies, the population is going fast, and that has been demonstrated with the greylag goose. In 2005, an acceptable population was agreed with then Minister of Agriculture ...