WESTERBEEK, Netherlands (AFP) — Dutch farmer Jos Verstraten scaled a ladder up the side of a large slurry tank resembling a circus tent and peered at its contents, which gave off an overpowering smell of ammonia.

As clouds gathered over Verstraten’s dairy farm, tucked away in a southeast corner of the Netherlands, so too a storm was brewing over the growing manure crisis confronting Dutch dairy farmers.

“We are literally in the shit,” the 59-year-old said with customary Dutch directness, pointing to a stable where 145 of his cows slowly chewed, waiting to be milked.

Verstraten and other Dutch farmers — who together own four million head of livestock — has for years benefitted from a special European Union (EU) dispensation allowing them to spread more manure on their fields than other countries in the 27-nation bloc.

The EU deal allowed the Netherlands — one of the world’s largest dairy exporters — to dump between 230 and 250 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare each year.