Minor changes in agricultural area

The total agricultural area operated by those who applied for agricultural production subsidies in 2009 was of the same size as the year before, and covered 10.1 million decares.

The area of meadows for mowing and pastureland covered 6.6 million decares in 2009, and represented 65 percent of the total agricultural area in use. The grain area covered 30 per cent of the total.

The total grain area for those who applied for agricultural production subsidies amounted to 3 million decares in 2009. Barley comprised 44 per,cent of the total grain area, while wheat and oats covered 27 and 26 per,cent respectively. The average holding with grain and oil seeds grew 224 decares of the corresponding crops this year.

Fewer dairy cows

The number of dairy cows fell by 8,700 to 239,600 in 2009. During the last 10 years, the number of dairy cows has been reduced by 73,200, while the number of beef cows has increased by 29,700 to

66,300. In the same period, the number of other cattle decreased by 111,700 to a total of 571,000.

The number of breeding pigs increased by 1,700 from 2008 to a total of 100,600 in 2009.The number of dairy goats has been reduced by 27 per,cent during the last 10 years to a total of 37,700 in 2009.

Organic farming

In 2009, organic farmland covered 415,500 decares of agricultural area in use, or 4.1 percent of the total area. A total of 28,600 cattle were approved for organic farming in 2009. About 8,100 of these were dairy cows and 3,800 beef cows.