An industrial three-cascade-reactor plant treating 45 m(3) d(-1) of dairy wastewater (DW) was monitored for approx. one year to investigate the effect of variable daily influent loads. It removed more than 85% COD, NH4-N and non-ionic and anionic surfactants from DW within the loads 7-24, 0.4-2.3, 0.4-0.7 and 0.1-0.5 kg d(-1), respectively; NH4-N removal, in particular, was almost quantitative. Although the degradation of the above parameters below the lower load thresholds declined to 78.7, 87.5, 50.2 and 64.7%, respectively, their residual concentrations met effluent discharge standards. The biomass settling properties, assessed as sludge volume index (SVI), were satisfactory (generally lower than 150 ml g(-1)) regardless of the organic load of the influent. The depletion of the pollutant load took mainly place in the first reactor albeit a significant contribution to the removal of the slowly degradable organic matter fraction was given by the two subsequent reactors. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.