Poultry farmers do not have to stop trimming birds' beaks without anaesthetic until 2021, farm minister, Henk Bleker, said yesterday.

Dutch News reports that a ban on clipping beaks without anaesthetic was introduced in 2001 but successive farm ministers have delayed its introduction.

However, farmers will have to switch to a new method of beak trimming using infra-red light, which is already used for turkeys, Mr Bleker said.

The beaks of some 37 million birds are currently trimmed every year on Dutch poultry farms to stop the birds pecking each other.