Agricultural businesses getting bigger – oesterreich.ORF.at
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According to Statistics Austria, the average area used by agricultural and forestry businesses in Austria is growing steadily. At the same time, the number of farms is falling and the proportion of organic farming is increasing.
Last year there were 155,900 agricultural and forestry holdings in Austria; in a ten-year comparison, the number has decreased by ten percent (17,400 holdings). At the same time, the cultivated area increased: while in 2010 it was 42.4 hectares that each farm used on average, in 2020 45.1 hectares were cultivated.
This means that Austrian agriculture is still structured in a small way, but the trend towards larger farms is unbroken, according to the broadcast. The proportion of organic farms rose from 14 to around 20 percent in the same period. Most of the farms, namely 91 percent, are still run as family businesses.
Although the number of cattle and pigs has declined overall, the number of animals per farm has increased since 2010. Ten years ago, farmers kept an average of 28 cattle; Share of farms that keep livestock from 63 percent in 2010 to 56 percent (86,700 farms) in 2020: This means that only around every second farmer keeps animals.