I stayed for a week on a dairy farm in the Netherlands (Fluitenberg, outside Hoogeveen) last year and it was completely unlike your description. The 100ish cows lived on a grass pasture and came in only for milking.
It was operated very similarly to a dairy farm in Ireland 20 years ago, which is all I'm familiar with.
Hello. I thought about what you wrote for a bit as I’m walking by some fields in the Netherlands.
Animal well being is of great importance to the Dutch middle class. Dairy consumption is high, and a high amount of the dairy sold, particularly milk, is advertised with animal well being. Just the milk cartons alone would tell you that cows do go to pasture a lot. That said it would be torture to have the cows stand outside the whole year. You can hardly get more domesticated than a Dutch cow. A golden retriever is more wild.
A lot of farm land, as a result, gets injected with fertiliser. In the summer the grass gets dried and stored to last through the winter.
I am assuming this is correct. I base this on what I see right in front of me.
There's big differences per farm. According to the CBS about 75% of farms let their cows graze outside. The dairy industry has published an intention to get this number up to 80% of cows being outside on the field for at least 6 hours.
I haven't been on a farm in 20 years, I have no idea if farmers rotate so they can have 200 cows on a 100 cow field each day. I imagine they wouldn't bother with making cows graze at night.
It was operated very similarly to a dairy farm in Ireland 20 years ago, which is all I'm familiar with.