Austria: Fewer cattle in the EU

Current Eurostat data show that in the 17 countries for which data are available and in which a good three quarters of all cattle are kept, the number of cattle fell within one year by 950,000 cattle or 1.6% to 59.68 million animals is, above all in the two largest production countries. In France, the number of cattle fell by 3.2% to 18.17 million heads, more than in any other EU country, followed by Germany (- 2.9%; 11.64 million). The reduction in Belgium and Romania was somewhat lower, at around 1.5% each. In Denmark the number of cattle remained unchanged, in Poland, Italy and Spain there were moderate increases in herd of between 0.3% and 0.5%. Only for Greece and Cyprus were significantly larger herds of cattle, at 1.7% and 4.6%, respectively, than a year earlier. A similar picture emerged with dairy cows, where husbandry was restricted in 11 of the 17 states. According to Eurostat data, the total number of cows decreased by around 220,000 animals or 1.4% to 15.90 million ...