🇲🇰 The cattle breeds of North Macedonia

Cattle in North Macedonia come second to sheep, with a 2007 census counting 241,257 head. Herding thrives in the mountains, on small family plots of a few hectares, while the low plains go to crops. Ottoman rulers settled Vlach and Anatolian herders and cattle traders in the region centuries ago.

• North Macedonia counted 241,257 cattle in 2007, fewer than its 794,053 sheep.
• Half of the country's farmland carries animals rather than crops.
• Ottoman rulers brought in Vlach and Anatolian herders and stock traders.
• Four in five Macedonian farms cover under three hectares, split into scattered parcels.
• Livestock keeping is strongest in the upland and mountain country.

Cattle in North Macedonia

Stock raising holds a central place in North Macedonian agriculture, and within it cattle rank second, behind the country's big sheep flocks. The 2007 count put the national herd at about 241,000 head. Herding is strongest in the mountains, where broken ground resists the plough, and half of all farmland carries animals rather than crops. Keeping cows is largely a smallholder affair on family plots of a few hectares carved into scattered parcels, while large farms inherited from socialist times struggle on. The pattern bears the marks of a past shared across the Balkans: Ottoman land systems, war, and collectivised farming each left their imprint on how animals are kept.

Regions and communities

Farming splits by height. Grain and vegetables fill the low ground: the Polog basin up in the north-west, Pelagonia in the country's south-western half, and the valley of the Vardar, a river flowing almost its whole length. Strumica, toward the south-eastern corner, is the top cropping district, with more than 8,000 hectares under cultivation. Stock keeping belongs to the uplands, and history helped arrange it that way. Valley peasants long ago moved uphill to escape armies on the march, and Ottoman governors then settled Vlach and Anatolian stock farmers in the emptied land.

Today

Roughly one person in five still earns a living from farming, in a country where half the people live outside towns, and the sector adds a tenth of gross domestic product. The 2007 livestock count recorded 241,257 cattle, ahead of goats and horses but far behind the sheep. Farming has operated as a market economy since 1991, yet big farms left over from the socialist era, only partly sold off, often lose money. Small family plots remain the norm.