3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
Moreover, due to nature and biodiversity protection regulations, commercial developers are
required to offset the loss of soils and biotops due to paving. This is often done by
extensification of farming land (for example, arable land is converted to extensive grassland,
forest etc.), thus adding even more pressure and speculation on agricultural land.
In these circumstances, access to land becomes a difficult challenge for agricultural holdings,
which cannot compete with other more profitable economic sectors.
Luxembourg Farm Holdings and Utilized Agricultural Area
Source: EuroStat (2012) Agricultural census in Luxembourg
Types of farming include specialized field crops, horticulture, permanent crops, and livestock
grazing. Two-thirds of the farms involve specialized livestock grazing consisting of nearly
200,000 cattle – including specialized dairy cattle (518 farms), specialized breeding and meat
cattle (351 farms), and specialized dairy, breeding and meat cattle (231 farms). Other livestock
include 8,700 sheep, 4,700 horses, and 4,300 goats. In addition, in 2015 farmers raised roughly
116,000 poultry and 87,000 pigs.
Intensification has been a hallmark of the dairy sector, as shown in the two graphs below. The
milk yield in kilograms per cow per year has increased from 3,380 kg/cow/year in 1967 to 7,382
kg/cow/year in 2015, or a 220% increase, as well as a 175% increase in total milk production
(see charts below). 123 At the same time, the number of dairy cows has declined to 46,908 in
2015 – one-third less than the high of 71,183 in 1975. 124
123 Luxembourg (2015) Service d’economie rurale (SER) for statistics on production of milk and milk prices and
STATEC for statistics on farms with dairy cows and the number of dairy cows, Ministere de l’Agriculture.
124 Ibid.
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