In 2006, the total number of farms in Finland was 69,071, which is around 500 fewer than in 2005. The information is from the Farm Register maintained by Tike.  The final data will be published, as well as in Matilda, in printed form in late summer 2007.

Average arable area almost unchanged

The average arable area on Finnish farms in 2006 was 33.31 hectares per farm, which was only a little higher than the year before (33.03 ha). Thus, it would seem that the growth of average arable area has levelled off.

Agricultural and horticultural areas were up by approx. 10,000 hectares on the previous year, totalling about 2.3 million hectares. About a third or almost 0.8 million hectares was leased farmland. The proportion of farms cultivating leased fields in 2006 was about 60 percent of all farms. These farms had on average 18.5 hectares of leased fields, which was slightly more than the year before.

Average cattle herd size up

In 2006, 20,000 farms in total had cattle in Finland, which is 1,400 farms fewer than the year before. About 15,700 farms had dairy cattle. On cattle farms the number of suckler cows grew, while the number of dairy cows fell. Of other livestock groups, particularly poultry, horse and goat numbers fell slightly, while numbers of sheep and pigs grew from the year before.


Average livestock numbers on farms continued the growth seen in recent years. For example, the average dairy farm had 20 cows in 2006, while the year before the corresponding figure was one cow less. Fattening pig numbers rose by 12 pigs on average per farm. Average livestock numbers increased most in the laying hens group; an increase of almost 200 per farm hiked the average number of hens to approx. 2,200 in 2006.

Cereal production the main production sector

The most important production sector continued to be cereal production, which was the main production branch of 28,450 farms. This is more than 40% of all farms. The second was dairy farming with 15,200 farms. However, there was a drop of 1,300 in the number of dairy farms compared to the year before. The number of pig and poultry farms fell somewhat, and there was a slight increase in farms engaged in sheep husbandry and other plant production.


Changes occurred over last decade

During the last decade, the number of dairy farms has fallen by half, as have those of poultry and pig farms. The number of farms engaged in horse husbandry and cereal or special crop production has remained almost unchanged for the last ten years. The only rise is in the number of farms engaged in other plant production. It has gone up over the last decade by 1,500 farms in all.


Additional information

Irene Mustalahti, Researcher,

Tel +358 (0)20 77 21 340,

email firstname.lastname@mmmtike.fi


Esa Katajamäki, Researcher,

Tel +358 (0)20 77 21 237,

email firstname.lastname@mmmtike.fi