In most EU countries, the number of cattle on farms declined by over one and a half percent. New Eurostat data shows that in the 17 countries for which data is available, the number of cattle decreased last year by 950,000 head or 1.6%, to 59.68 million animals.
The decrease occurred mainly in the two largest producing countries. In France, the number of cattle dropped by 3.2% to 18.17 million head, followed by Germany (-2.9%; 11.64 million). The decline in Belgium and Romania was slightly less, at about 1.5% each.
A similar pattern emerged with dairy cows, where dairy farming was limited in 11 of the 17 EU countries studied. According to Eurostat, the total number of dairy cows in those countries fell by about 220,000 animals (1.4%) to 15.90 million cows.
In the Netherlands, 2020 marked the first slight growth in cattle numbers in several years. On the reference date in spring, the Netherlands counted 3.8 million cattle, 0.7 percent more. The number of dairy cows increased by 1.0 percent to 1.6 million.
The Dutch cattle population had shrunk in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2017, the phosphate reduction plan for dairy farming came into effect. At that time, farms sold dairy cattle to halt the growth of the herd, the CBS explained then. Last year, the cattle population grew slightly again.
Especially in Lithuania (-3.4%), Germany (-2.3%; 3.92 million), and France (-1.6%) fewer dairy cows were kept, and in the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland between 1.4% and 1.9% fewer. The dairy cow herd in Spain and Italy was nearly at last year's level. Milk producers in Denmark, Belgium and Sweden had between 0.4% and 1% more cows on the farm.
In Denmark, the number of cattle remained unchanged; in Poland, Italy, and Spain there was a moderate increase in the herd of between 0.3% and 0.5%. Only Greece and Cyprus had significantly larger cattle herds, 1.7% and 4.6% respectively, compared to the previous year.
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