🇲🇩 The cattle breeds of Moldova

Cattle play a modest part in Moldova, a farming land better known for wine, fruit and grain. Six in ten agricultural holdings kept some livestock in 2011, yet cattle numbers fell by two fifths over the 2000s, and the country now buys in most of the milk and meat it needs.

• Cattle holdings in Moldova fell by 40% between 2001 and 2010.
• 61.2% of the country's farm holdings raised livestock in 2011.
• Milk ranks among the seven products driving 90% of farm output.
• Pastures and hayfields cover 352,300 hectares, 17% of farmed land.
• Livestock gave 33.7% of farm production in 2014, crops 66.3%.

Cattle in Moldova

Moldova, a landlocked country between Romania and Ukraine, runs its farms mainly for crops, with livestock in a clear second place. Crop production took about two thirds of farm output in 2014, and milk stands among the seven products that drive nine tenths of it. Cattle keeping is widespread but shrinking: six in ten farm holdings raised livestock in 2011, yet the national herd fell by two fifths between 2001 and 2010. The livestock side is less competitive than the crop trade, so Moldova buys in the bulk of its livestock goods, while grain, wine, fruit and nuts go out to the European Union and neighbouring states.

Milk, butter and beef

Milk is the standout, counted among the seven products that drive nine tenths of Moldovan farm output, alongside cereals, grapes, pigs, poultry, fruit and vegetables. Livestock as a whole supplied about a third of farm production in 2014, and cattle form one part of that. Beyond milk the trade is thin: output is low and uncompetitive, so Moldova brings in the bulk of the animal products it consumes.

Today

Cattle holdings dropped by two fifths between 2001 and 2010, a steeper fall than for pigs, and the wider farm economy has shrunk with them, from over half of national output in 1995 to under 14% in 2013. Work on the land has thinned as well, though farming remains a fallback employer for poor rural households. Trade ties signed with the European Union in 2014 point exports towards wine, fruit and nuts.