Cattle herds in Saxony continue to shrink

The decline in cattle numbers in Saxony, which has been ongoing for years, continued last year. According to the State Statistical Office in Kamenz, around 420,000 cattle were counted on around 6,200 farms at the beginning of November 2024 - 180 fewer holdings than in the previous year. The number of dairy cows also fell, dropping by 4,300 to a total of 160,000 animals. Over the past ten years, the cattle population in Saxony has thus shrunk by 18 percent.

Almost three quarters of all cattle belonged to dairy breeds, with the Holstein-Schwarzbunt breed being the most important in Saxony. Most cattle were kept in the district of Central Saxony - a total of 66,400 animals, which corresponds to 16 percent of the entire herd. This was followed by the Erzgebirgskreis with 53,500 cattle (13 percent) and the district of Görlitz with 42,200 animals (10 percent).