Dairy farm count declines in Thuringia region. - Decrease in Dairy Farm Count within Thuringia
Decline in Dairy Farms in Thuringia Over Past Decade
The number of dairy farms in Thuringian agriculture has seen a substantial drop over the last ten years. This is according to a response from the Thuringian Ministry of Economics to an inquiry by Melanie Berger, an AfD state parliamentarian. By 2023, there were only 280 dairy farms left compared to 500 a decade earlier.
Simultaneously, the number of dairy cows has decreased by approximately 24% to 82,900 animals. In contrast, ten years ago, there were 109,000.
The Thuringian Farmers’ Association explains that this trend is not limited to Thuringia but is nationwide. Many dairy farmers are either shutting down their operations or expanding their barns and adopting more automation, largely due to a shortage of skilled agricultural workers. According to Andreas Ritter, a dairy specialist at the Thuringian Farmers' Association, this shift results in more animals and more milk being produced per operation.
Consequently, the produced milk has dropped by only around 21% in nine years, despite a near halving of the number of operations. Thuringian dairy farms in conventional agriculture delivered 770,000 tonnes of milk last year, as per figures from the Federal Statistical Office.
In Thuringia, the number of organic dairy farms has remained relatively unchanged over the past ten years. There were only around 20 organic farms with dairy cows out of the approximately 4,890 organic operations nationwide in 2023. This is primarily due to the scarcity of dairies, which are required to strictly separate conventional and organic production.
Economic pressures, structural changes, regulatory and environmental factors, generational changes, and market trends have contributed to the decrease in dairy farms across Germany and Europe. The trend favors large-scale, specialized operations over traditional family farms. This decline is expected to continue unless policies or market conditions change to support smaller dairy enterprises.
The industry-wide shift towards larger, more automated dairy operations has led to a decline in traditional family farms, with Thuringia seeing a decrease of 620 dairy farms over the past decade. Simultaneously, the finance sector has played a role in this transition, as dairy farmers may require more capital to purchase advanced machinery and technology.
