The number of farms in the A.C. of the Basque Country fell from 22,234 in 2003 to 21,730 in 2005, 2.3% fewer. Both total agricultural surface area and used agricultural surface area (worked land and permanent pasture land) hardly varied with regard to 2003, 0.5% more for the former and 0.5% less the latter, according to Eustat data.

The average size of used agricultural surface area for farms in the A.C. of the Basque Country is 11.03 hectares, although with considerable differences between Araba, 29.2 hectares, and the other two provinces, Gipuzkoa (7.9 ha.) and Bizkaia (5.9 ha.).

The rest of the use of land shows 18.8% of the area is earmarked for worked land, mostly dedicated to growing herbaceous species in the province of Alava.

Table 1.- Agricultural surface area classified by type of use and province. 2005

Source: EUSTAT

Drop in the number of livestock farms and heads of cattle and sheep, while the number of pigs increased

In 2005 there were 1,000 fewer farms with bovine livestock (-11.7%) and 443 fewer pig farms (-23%) than in 2003. The decrease in sheep farms came to 393 fewer farms, i.e. 7.7% fewer.

The evolution in the number of livestock heads varies: positive for pig livestock (6.6%), but negative for cattle (-5.6%) and sheep (-1.1%).

If we take into account these two evolutions, the number of livestock heads per farm increased over the two years between 2003 and 2005.

Table 2. Livestock. Type of livestock and units. 2005

Source: EUSTAT

Methodology note: Data refer to the agricultural campaign between the 1 October 2004 and the 30 September 2005, agricultural year 2005. This survey was carried out in collaboration with the National Statistics Institute (INE) in the A.C. of the Basque Country.