Fewer pigs on small-scale farms

By the end of 2000 there were 12.8 million pigs in the Netherlands. There is a decreasing number of pigs on small-scale holdings. In 1992 over a quarter of the total number of pigs was held on small-scale holdings. In 2000 this share had gone down to 10%.

Pigs in the Netherlands

Concentration and specialisation

There are about 4 600 small-scale holdings with pigs left, compared to over 14 thousand of such holdings in 1992. Up-scaling and specialisation mean that pigs are increasingly held on large, specialised farms. Currently there are almost 1 thousand pig farms with more than 2 500 heads. In 1992 there were over 500 pig farms of that size. The thousand biggest holdings have almost on third of the entire pig population within the country.

Pigs in small-scale holdings

The group of farmers who combine pigs and some major other type of agriculture has gone down drastically in eight years time. In 1992 Statistics Netherlands observed over 18 thousand of these combination farms. In the Landbouwtelling 2000 –agricultural census 2000 – there were some 8 400 left.

Holdings with pigs

Cor Pierik