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The fields and the farms are getting bigger
Photo: imago images / Westend61
Farms in Germany are bigger than ever before.
On average, a farm last worked 63 hectares of land, seven hectares more than ten years ago, reports the Federal Statistical Office.
The number of businesses fell by twelve percent to a total of 263,500 in the same period.
The structural change in agriculture is continuing, but it is losing speed compared to previous decades.
The agriculturally used area remained almost constant with only a slight minus of around one percent with 16.6 million hectares or almost half (46.5 percent) of the total area of the Federal Republic.
More cattle in loose pens, fewer hens in cages
"This means that the companies are bigger than ever," said Federal Office Vice President Christoph Unger.
The number of farms with an area of more than 100 hectares grew within ten years by around 4,500 to around 38,100 farms.
According to the statisticians, 14 percent of all farms cultivate 62 percent of the total agricultural area in Germany.
An average of 827 pigs per farm
This trend towards larger farms is also evident in animal husbandry: although the number of animals has decreased compared to 2010, it is not as strong as the number of animal husbandry companies.
This means that in pig husbandry there are now an average of 827 pigs per farm.
In 2010 there were 459 pigs.
Specialization is also advancing, especially in poultry and pig farms.
The approximately 10,000 holdings that exclusively keep poultry account for 70 percent of the total poultry population;
72 percent of the total stock is in the 14,200 farms that only keep pigs.
Every tenth company is now eco
According to the survey, one in ten farms has now switched to organic farming and animal husbandry, especially in southern Germany.
Ten years ago it was six percent.
They now cultivate almost ten percent of the total agricultural area.
The number of organic farms increased by almost 10,000 to more than 26,000 compared to 2010 - an increase of 60 percent.
The number of farms with organic animal husbandry grew by 43 percent to around 17,500.
That is around ten percent of all livestock farms.
According to the Federal Office, eight percent of the total population of cattle is now kept organically, five percent of poultry and almost one percent of pigs - i.e. less than one in a hundred animals.
At the beginning of 2020, the Federal Statistical Office surveyed around 265,000 farmers in Germany in detail for the first time in ten years.
According to the data, the number of animals per farm continued to grow, the stalls became more modern: more cattle are kept in loose stalls, fewer hens in cages.
Less workers in agriculture
In parallel with the decreasing number of farms, the number of workers in German agriculture has fallen.
In total there are just under 937,000, including 271,000 seasonal workers and a good 229,000 permanent employees, around 436,000 "family workers in sole proprietorship", as the Federal Statistical Office explained.
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caw / AFP / dpa