A series of protests by Dutch livestock farmers, characterised by the use of tractors to block roads and occupy public spaces, have been ongoing since 2019. The protests were initially triggered in October 2019 by a proposal in parliament to halve the country's livestock in an attempt to limit agricultural pollution in the Netherlands, but protesting farmers have frequently told media that they are motivated by a perceived lack of respect for their profession by the Dutch populace, media and politicians.

The protests combined several action groups and an amalgamation of larger goals, which included less government regulation for farmers, more air time for pro-farmer sentiments, and more policies to punish Shell and Tata Steel for their part in the emission crisis.

Public understanding for the farmers has remained high for the duration of the conflict, but actual support began to waver by the end of 2019. By July 2020, 55% of people responding to a survey polled by EenVandaag did not support further protests, but just over half of the respondents remained sympathetic to the farmers.

Public understanding remained high through the summer of 2022, while public support for the protests was polled as low as 39% by I&O Research; particularly low support was found among people living in urban areas.

The Netherlands has a significant agrarian and livestock sector, which produces and transits large quantities of agricultural exports. As such, the country is the second largest exporter of agricultural produce in the world after the United States when the exportation of imported agricultural goods, such as cattle and soybeans are included. Large imports of cattle fodder cause an imbalance in the nitrogen cycle. Since the mid-2000s, climate activism and animal rights activism have become more commonplace in the Dutch House of Representatives and general political discourse of the Netherlands, especially with the emergence of the Party for the Animals as a political force. Policy proposals by parties such as the Dutch green party, GroenLinks, and the social liberal D66 have since emphasized the need for farmers to transition into sustainable farming. These policy proposals were consistently met with opposition by farmers and their representatives. Between 1990 and 2010, considerable progress had been made in reducing agricultural pollution, during a series of coalitions between centre-left and centre-right parties. In 2010 however, the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal and People's Party for Freedom and Democracy formed a minority cabinet with the support of the far-right Party for Freedom. Pollution reduction projects were largely put on hold, while existing regulations were no longer strictly enforced. Even though this First Rutte cabinet proved to be short-lived, it led to a trend break in environmental policy. In reaction, environmental activists began to sue the Dutch state, demanding that the laws would be upheld.

In 2019, the Netherlands entered a nitrogen emission crisis when on 29 May the Council of State, the highest Dutch administrative court, ruled that the existing emission policy violated Dutch law and European regulations protecting vulnerable nature reserves and biotopes. In principle no further emission critically impacting such areas was allowed, which threatened to halt a significant part of Dutch building and infrastructural projects, unless their nitrogen output would be compensated by a reduction in agricultural emissions. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reported that the severely damaging effects of nitrogen on Dutch soil could only be halted by direct action. The institute found that farmers were responsible for 46% of the country's nitrogen emission, mostly due to cow dung produced by the livestock industry. This situation led Tjeerd de Groot, a member of the House of Representatives for D66, a party in the ruling coalition, to propose new policy to halve the current Dutch livestock on 9 September 2019. The RIVM's findings coupled with De Groot's policy proposal led to resistance by Farmers Defence Force, a farmer activist group. It claimed that the institute had used "shady methods" to "portray" farmers as big time polluters. They claimed that their unfair portrayal as polluters is caused by the governments desire to let the real big time polluters go free. They claimed their fundamental rights were threatened by legislation aiming to lower emissions and demanded that any new legislation would not threaten agricultural undertakings with elimination. They also demanded more research to be undertaken before new legislation be proposed. The government repudiated the accusations of using "shady methods" being used by the RIVM and claimed the numbers were correct.

In addition to the nitrogen emission crisis, Dutch news media have reported that farmers have felt disrespected or threatened in their existence because of increased government regulation on the agricultural and livestock sectors, as well as the popularity of animal rights activism among the Dutch population. An incident that occurred on 13 May 2019, in which up to 200 animal rights activists occupied a pig farm in Boxtel, North Brabant, sowed fear among livestock farmers and motivated them to organize into collectives such as Farmers Defence Force [nl] and Agractie, which later became key players in the farmers' protests.

1 October was one of the days with the most intense protests. Thousands of farmers went to The Hague to protest, their tractors causing over a thousand kilometres of traffic jams. This made it the busiest morning rush (hour) in the history of the Netherlands. When arriving at designated location, the Malieveld, the protesters damaged the area, driving through fences and signs and destroying the landscape. Afterwards farmers offered to assist in repairing the damage.