Cattle

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Food Industry, Business Statistics
Mona Larsen
+45 24 81 68 47

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Cattle 2024

The purpose of these statistics is to describe the stock of cattle in Denmark. The statistics are i.e. used for forecasts of future slaughtering of cattle. The cattle stock have been estimated since 1946, but these statistics are in its current form comparable from 2008 and onwards.

Statistical presentation

These statistics are a quarterly measurement of the total number of cattle in Denmark. The number of cattle are divided into groups of bulls and steers, heifers and cows, based on information collected from administrative registers. The cattle stock is also divided by geographic province.

Statistical processing

Information is collected from two registers: the Central Register of Livestock and the Register of Cattle. In the Central Register of Livestock every single animal is registered with an individual number, birthday and sex and so on. These data are linked with data from the Register of Cattle about whether the heifers are with calf or not. When all data are validated, they are grouped by type, age and geography.

Relevance

The cattle survey is of great interest to EU, the Ministry of Environment and Food, The Danish Association of Slaughterhouses and others farmer´s organizations, but also students and interested people in general. The most important purposes of cattle surveys are to provide a basis base for forecasts of cattle for slaughter. The statistics are used in financially and environment studies.

There are no examination of the uses satisfaction, but the impression is, that most users are satisfied with the statistics.

Accuracy and reliability

The reliability of the variables for cattle is considered to be good. The information about cattle comes from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration's database, the Central Livestock Register (CHR) and the cattle database owned by SEGES. There is a large control of data in these registers, as it is mandatory that all cattle must be registered in CHR

Timeliness and punctuality

The survey results are published quarterly, about 3 weeks after the survey day. The punctuality is high, with delays happening very rarely.

Comparability

The survey is comparable from 2008 onwards, and there is a high degree of comparability with previous surveys. Furthermore there is high degree of comparability with other European countries, especially the EU countries.

Accessibility and clarity

These statistics are published semiannually in a Danish press release and quarterly in the Statbank table KVAEG5. For further information, see the subject page for Livestock.