Farms with livestock
How many farms have livestock? How many of them are organic? What is the livestock population of e.g. pigs and cattle? Learn more about the livestock of the farms with figures from the farm structure survey.
Selected statistics on Farms with livestock
Farms with livestock
The information comes from the questionnaire, IACS and the livestock register
In 2025 the sample had a size of 6.300 farms, about 20 per cent all farms in Denmark. In addition there are 14,000 smaller farms lower than 30 ha, where the results are exclusively from registers and imputations
The sample is stratified by regions, size and type of farming (e.g. pig farms, cattle farms and plant production).
Farms with cattle and pigs
The information comes from the questionnaire, IACS and the livestock register
In 2025 the sample had a size of 6.300 farms, about 20 per cent all farms in Denmark. In addition there are 14,000 smaller farms lower than 30 ha, where the results are exclusively from registers and imputations
The sample is stratified by regions, size and type of farming (e.g. pig farms, cattle farms and plant production).
Organic farms with livestock
The information comes from the questionnaire, IACS and the livestock register
In 2025 the sample had a size of 6.300 farms, about 20 per cent all farms in Denmark. In addition there are 14,000 smaller farms lower than 30 ha, where the results are exclusively from registers and imputations
The sample is stratified by regions, size and type of farming (e.g. pig farms, cattle farms and plant production).
Head of cattle
Information is collected from registers.
- The Central Register of Livestock , which is administrated by the Ministry of Environment and Food
- The Register of Cattle, which are owned and administrated by SEGES.
The Central Register of Livestock (CHR) is the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration's database for registration of herds and livestock. CHR has a variety of applications, where the main thing is veterinary, as help to a rapid and effective detection of infection by outbreaks of diseases such as BSE or foot-and-mouth disease. Therefore the control with the information in the register is very high. In the register every single animal has an unit number (CKR number) which consists of a livestock number and an individual number inside the livestock. The register consists of information on among others birthdays, sex and used fore example dairy cattle and beef cattle. Each animal is associated with a CHR number, and each CHR number is linked to a property (matrikel number) and thus to a fixed geographical location. The CHR is regularly updated with information from the Cattle Database on the entry and exit of animals on the individual properties (purchase / sale of animals, calving, slaughtering, export of the animal and dead animals), as well as with information on suppliers and buyers of cattle. Furthermore, the departure of slaughter animals is verified by the slaughterhouses and the dead animals by the destruction facilities. Read more about CHR on the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration's website.
The Register of Cattle contains basic data from the CHR and data which are reported by the cattle farmers or transferred from others: The Cattle Breeding Association Viking, dairies, slaughterhouses, DAKA, ear-brand manufacturers and veterinarians. is a comprehensive system which mainly serves the farmer in the daily work. The Register of Cattle mainly serves the cattle farmers as a tool to best manage the farm with a view to achieving good operation. Furthermore, all statutory registrations on each individual animal are transferred to CHR, ie. information from the Cattle Database updates the CHR.
In connection with the preparation of the statistics, CHR data is supplemented with information on the heifers age and about whether it is in calf (pregnancy) from the Register of Cattle. A heifer in calf (pregnancy) is defined as she is in calf or is inseminated more than 3 months ago.
Number of pigs
The pig survey is a sample survey, The population includes all active farms in Denmark and is integrated in the Statistical Business Register (ESR) (CHR)[https://chr.fvst.dk], which is kept by Statistics Denmark, and which is registered with pigs in the Central Livestock Register (CHR).
In the selection of the survey population, the holdings are divided into 22 strata according to the types of pigs and the number of pigs in total on the holding obtained by the latest count of pigs from the holding. These data can originate from either the pig survey or The Agricultural and Horticultural Survey depending on which count was the latest for the specific holding.
All farms with at least 5,000 sows and all farms with at least 10,000 pigs for slaughtering or piglets are selected each time, while the selected in other strata are random, however, a holding will at maximum participate 8 consecutive times in the sample.
The size of the sample: - 01 July 2026: 1,166 farms with pigs out of 1,947 farms with pigs - 01 April 2026: 1,186 farms with pigs out of 1,942 farms with pigs - 01 January 2026: 1,269 farms with pigs out of 1,951 farms with pigs
On the statistics – documentation, sources and method
See the documentation of statistics to learn more:
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.
The purpose of the survey is to describe the structure of agriculture, e.g. number of farms by size and geography.
The statistics have comparable time series going back to 1982. The agricultural statistics, however, are much older than that with figures for number of farms, livestock, crops etc. going back to around 1900.
The statistics on the stock of pigs shows the total number of pigs in Denmark. It aims, among other tings, to form a basis for forecasting future slaughters and future stock of sows. The statistics are also used for different economic and environmental estimations and analyses. The stocks of pigs have been compiled since 1915 but with slightly different methods used over time. The last change was in 01 April 2018. The difference in the number of pigs for new and the old method of analysis is below 1 per cent. The statistics are considered to be comparable from 1998 onwards.