{"id":10110,"date":"2026-04-09T13:51:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/10110\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:51:40","slug":"eu-livestock-output-set-to-fall-across-most-sectors-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/10110\/","title":{"rendered":"EU livestock output set to fall across most sectors in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sheep, goats face steepest declines, while pig numbers buck the trend<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thepigsite.com\/assets\/svg\/feathericons\/calendar.svg\" class=\"feather-icon pe-2\" alt=\"calendar icon\"\/> 9 April 2026<\/p>\n<p>                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thepigsite.com\/assets\/svg\/feathericons\/clock.svg\" class=\"feather-icon pe-2\" alt=\"clock icon\"\/><br \/>\n                    1 minute read<\/p>\n<p>Eurostat forecasts a broad decline in EU livestock production in 2026, with sheep and goat numbers set to fall most sharply, though pig production is expected to swim against the tide, <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/en\/web\/products-eurostat-news\/w\/ddn-20260318-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to Eurostat<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bovine production in the second half of 2026 is forecast to drop 4.2% year on year to 11.4 million head. France, the EU&#8217;s largest bovine producer, is expected to account for 23.1% of that total, with output falling only marginally (-0.4% to 2.63 million head). Germany also faces a modest decline (-0.6% to 1.7 million head), while Ireland is set for a steeper drop of 5.2% to 0.9 million head. Spain is the only major bovine producer forecast to grow output, up 2.7% to 1.1 million head.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:3554\/1978;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EU-meat-March-2026.png\" width=\"3554\" height=\"1978\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The picture is far bleaker for small ruminants. Sheep production is forecast to fall 17.8% to 12.2 million head, with Spain \u2014 the EU&#8217;s leading producer \u2014 facing a particularly severe slump of 40.4%. Goat production is projected to decline 17.1% to 1.9 million head, with Greece, the leading producer, seeing a comparatively modest fall of 2.6%.<\/p>\n<p>Pigs are the exception. EU production is forecast to rise 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2026, led by Spain (+12.0% to 15.8 million head), with Germany, Denmark and France also expected to post gains.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1438\/830;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EU-bovine-2026.png\" width=\"1438\" height=\"830\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheep, goats face steepest declines, while pig numbers buck the trend 9 April 2026 1 minute read Eurostat&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-10110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-european-union"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}