Nearly 86 pct of Dutch farms disappeared between 1950 and 2016

In the period between 1950 and 2016 six out of seven farms in the Netherlands disappeared, Statistics Netherlands said on Monday. But the average size of the remaining companies increased significantly, from 5.7 hectares to 32.4 hectares.

The number of animals per farm also increased significantly. In 1950 the average farmer had seven pigs, compared to 1,600 last year. Cattle numbers increased from 13 to 160.

The number of agriculture and horticulture companies dropped from 410 thousand in 1950 to 55 thousand in 2016. In 1950 all the farms together possessed 2.3 million hectares of cultivated land. Last year it was down to 1.8 million hectares.