🇸🇪 The cattle breeds of Sweden

Cattle in Sweden are kept mainly for milk, and dairy farming is the largest branch of the country's agriculture. Herds are concentrated in the central and southern lowlands, where the growing season is longest. Butter from Swedish dairies was once a significant export, and the modern industry works within European Union farm policy.

• Dairy farming is Sweden's largest farm sector, about 20% of production value.
• Butter exports reached 16,000 to 20,000 tonnes a year in the early 20th century.
• Milking machines replaced hand milking in the late 1940s.
• There are 72,000 farms, averaging 36 hectares of fields, and 177,600 workers.
• By 1998 Sweden was self-sufficient in most animal products, but feed was imported.

Cattle in Sweden

Cattle keeping in Sweden sits inside a farming economy shaped by short growing seasons and by forestry, which covers far more of the land than crops or pasture. Dairy herds are the economic core: milk is the single largest agricultural sector, worth about a fifth of all farm output. Beef and pig enterprises are counted among the other main specialised branches. Selected foreign animals were bought for breeding stations between 1702 and 1864. Because Sweden farms within the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, its cattle policy and support follow the same framework as its neighbours.

Regions and communities

The south is the productive end of the country, with the longest growing season, over 240 days in places, and the Central Swedish lowland is the traditional heart of farming. In Skåne, land use was rationalised and intensified during the 19th century, through drainage and the clearing of lakes. Norrland covers 60 per cent of Sweden's land but holds about 12 per cent of the population; forestry, logging and mining dominate there, and Sámi communities keep reindeer rather than cattle. Gotland, the largest island, is a centre for food processing and agriculture.

Milk, butter and beef

From the late 1860s butter and milk became the backbone of Swedish farm income, and dairy earnings were the main source for farm businesses around 1900. Cereal exports stopped and bread grain was imported instead, while butter went abroad, at 16,000 to 20,000 tonnes a year in the early 20th century, followed later by pork and live pigs. Milk and beef are both tracked in the farm economic surveys, alongside pig enterprises.

Today

Dairy farming remains the largest sector, at 20 per cent of agricultural production value. Sweden has 72,000 farms, averaging 36 hectares of fields, and 177,600 people work in agriculture. Cooperatives in dairy, meat and grain merged or formed alliances between 1990 and 2020. By 1998 the country was self-sufficient in most animal products, though much artificial feed, including soybean cake from Brazil, was imported.