Cattle in Europe

Over the last 15 years there has been more emphasis placed on efficiency and productivity, and thus the move to more intensive farming methods, often incorporating industrial feedlot systems. This has been good for grain quality improvement where there has been a parallel effort on parasite irradication (warble fly etc).

Framce has the largest cattle herd in Europe around 20,5 million head, and is second only to the USA as the world's largest exporter of raw hides. The cattle herd has fallen from more than 23 million head in 1979, to the present day figure, due mainly to falling numbers of dairy cows(-22%) following the introduction of milk quotas set throughout the European Union. At the same time there has been a movement away from traditional pastoral farming(extensive), and some 82,000 small farms carrying less than 20 cows have disappeared.

Cattle in Europe