Animal Production

ANIMAL PRODUCTION

Animal breeding is an important sector of the Slovak economy. Its share in the gross agricultural production is more than 60%. The importance of animal breeding, apart from other things, lies in off-production functions, where beef cattle and sheep play an irreplaceable position in the preservation of the cultural character of the country. Beef cattle breeding as well as sheep breeding belong to the Slovak country, were an important part of its past and we believe that they will also be a part in the coming years.

The variable natural conditions of Slovakia create the conditions for breed-varied animal production focused on the use of the biomass of a wide area of permanent grass covers for ruminant breeding, as well as for monogastric animal breeding.

Animal production in terms of value increased on a year-on-year basis by 0.6% due to a decrease in the natural production of slaughter animals by 2.8% in total, while the prices of animal commodities increased by 0.7%. The production of slaughter animals increased in the case of poultry (1.3%) and beef cattle (0.1%), as did the production of sheep (2.8%) and cow milk (1.3%).

Indices of year-on-year changes in the natural production of main commodities

STRUCTURE OF FARMS

Factory farming of farm animals was preserved in Slovakia, similarly as in the Czech Republic and Hungary, while the production systems were enriched with the small herds of individual farmers. Although with respect to the number of farms, individual farmers are dominant, significant number of animals are bred on large farms.

This is mainly true of beef cattle, when almost 85% of milk cows are bred on farms with a concentration of 50 and more heads. A similar situation holds in the case of pigs, and about 35% of the sheep population is owned by individual farmers. Factory farming, mainly of milk cows, has experienced significant modernisation during the last 10 years and, nowadays, almost 60% of cows are bred in free stalls with milking in modern milk houses.

Source: Report on Agriculture and Food Sector in the Slovak Republic for 2020 - Green Report.