The official statistics office of the European Union, Eurostat, has published figures that put the European Union’s cattle population at the start of this year at 72.2 million head.

It said this figure was down by 2.3% from the total at the start of the previous year, meaning the 27-state European Union lost 1.7 million head of cattle in the course of 2024.

Commentators have pointed out that dry conditions in many parts of Europe over a prolonged period in 2022 and 2023 is one of the main factors in cattle herds reducing in size.

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