The number of cattle farms in Spain has decreased by almost 20% in a decade

The number of cattle farms in Spain decreased by 18.9% between January 2014 and January 2024, according to data collected by the Integrated Animal Traceability System (SITRAN) of the Ministry of Agriculture. At the beginning of 2024, there were just under 115,000 cattle farms in our country, compared to more than 140,000 in 2014 and 221,592 at the beginning of 2007. Of these, 89% were for meat production, 9% for dairy production and 2% mixed (dual meat-milk production). The downward trend in the number of cattle farms has been constant in the last decade and all types of farms have contributed to it, taking into account their zootechnical classification. In relative terms, the sharpest decline corresponds to the pre-fattening farms, which are the least numerous and have practically disappeared. The most important in number, those producing meat, are the ones that have remained the most stable, while those producing milk have been reduced by half since 2014 and those for fattening ...