The relative importance of family labour was particularly pronounced in very small and small farms, defined here in relation to their economic size. By contrast, physically large farms (with at least 100 hectares of utilised agricultural area) provided work to more than two thirds of the farm labour force in Slovakia (67.6 %) and the Czech Republic (68.2 %). Indeed, there is an interesting dichotomy between small family-run, labour-intensive, diversified farms and larger corporate farms which tend to be relatively specialised and rely on capital investment in machinery to benefit from economies of scale. This may be explained, at least in part, by the relatively high number of very small, subsistence households in the EU (see below for more information concerning farms where more than 50 % of their output is self-consumed). … although small and very small farms were specialised in olive farming. Thus, over time, land use and agricultural production have become more concentrated. The average economic size of farms was also relatively high in Denmark, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom, ranging from EUR 246 700 to EUR 117 800; none of the other EU Member States recorded an average economic size of more than EUR 80 000 per farm. It is interesting to note that sole holders accounted for less than 5.0 % of the labour input on farms in these Member States, suggesting that they often had a different ownership status (cooperatives or corporate farms). This suggests losses of up to 4.2 million farms across the Member States, the vast majority of which (about 85 %) were small farms of a size under 5 ha. Although comparatively few, the number of farms in the EU taking a legal form rose by about 40 000 through to 2016. A closer analysis of the information for sole holders reveals that a much higher proportion of very large farms had male (compared with female) sole holders. These two Nordic Member States were the only EU Member States where wooded areas belonging to agricultural holdings accounted for a higher share of the land area than that used for agricultural purposes. These farms were particularly prevalent in Romania (68.7 % of all farms) and Hungary (67.6 %), while they also accounted for more than half of the total number of farms in Malta, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Latvia. For example, a single LSU corresponds to 10 sheep or goats. A more detailed division can be made between those farms where labour was provided exclusively by the family (farms with only family workers) and those where 50 % or more (but not 100 %) of the labour force were family workers. Family farms are by far the most common type of farm in the European Union (EU), encompassing a wide range of agricultural holdings (hereafter referred to as farms): from small, semi-subsistence farms with only family workers and farms which have to rely on other gainful activities for a diversified source of income, through to much larger, more productive farms which nevertheless are mostly managed by family members. Family farms reared 62.5 % of all livestock and produced 59.5 % of the agricultural output in 2016. Note also that the overall figure for the number of AWUs was lower than the 10.8 million farms that were active across the whole of the EU in 2013 and as such, there was, on average, less than one AWU for each farm. The utilised agricultural area (UAA) is a measure (in hectares) of the area used for farming. The largest declines in farm numbers were recorded in Slovakia (-12.5 % per annum), Bulgaria (-8.9 % per annum), Poland (-6.6 % per annum), Italy (-6.5 % per annum), the Czech Republic (-5.8 % per annum), Latvia (-5.5 % per annum) and the United Kingdom (-5.3 % per annum). In 2013, arable land accounted for more than four fifths of the total agricultural area utilised by very small and small farms in Sweden and Finland, while permanent grassland and meadow accounted for a similar share of the utilised agricultural area among very small and small farms in Austria, Ireland the United Kingdom, where a high proportion of very small and small farms were specialised in grazing livestock. While 6.3 % of the total number of farms in the EU-28 were considered as being very large as a result of generating a standard output of at least EUR 100 000, this share was considerably higher in several Member States. Farms in the Czech Republic were, on average, 115 times as large as in Malta. Livestock units (LSUs) facilitate the aggregation of livestock data for different species and ages, by the use of coefficients to make the data on different animals comparable. Young farm managers (aged under 40) of family farms were more common in Luxembourg (26.0 %); Austria (21.7 %) and Poland (20.0 %) than in most Member States. The standard output of an agricultural product (crop or livestock) is the average monetary value of the agricultural output at farm-gate price, in euro per hectare or per head of livestock. If these provisions do not explicitly indicate the number of hours, then 1 800 hours are taken to be the minimum (225 working days of eight hours each). In 2013, average labour input per farm ranged from lows of 0.4 AWUs per farm in Romania, 0.5 AWUs in Cyprus and Malta and 0.7 AWUs in Greece, up to an average of 2.1 AWUs per farm in Slovakia and 2.3 AWUs in the Netherlands, peaking at 4.0 AWUs per farm in the Czech Republic. By contrast, the lowest average levels of standard output were recorded either in capital city regions, for example, Berlin or London (where there is practically no space for agricultural activity within the region) or in very remote, often upland/highland regions, where it may be difficult to farm or transport goods to market, for example, the overseas French regions of Guyane and La Réunion, the southern Polish region of Podkarpackie, the island Região Autónoma da Madeira (Portugal) and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (the United Kingdom). However, the largest exception that stands out in Figure 10 is the high proportion (57.3 %) of farm managers in very large Romanian farms who were aged less than 35 years: their share was more than six times as high as the EU average. On average, farms in the German region of Sachsen-Anhalt had the highest standard output. It gathers information on family farming from all over the world, including national laws and regulations, public policies, best practices, relevant data and statistics, research, articles and publications. This page has been accessed 18,183 times. Together, these ‘non-family farms’ accounted for 4.9 % of the total number of farms in the EU-28 but cultivated 37.7 % of the utilised agricultural area. Figures 3 to 7 show the relative importance of family and non-family farms in Member States: data for family farms are presented in dark and light green and non-family farms in dark and light orange. Almost three quarters (71.5 %) of the utilised agricultural area of the EU was based in just seven Member States; France used 27.8 million ha for agricultural purposes in 2016, Spain 23.2 million ha, the United Kingdom and Germany both 16.7 million ha, Poland used 14.4 million ha, Italy a further 12.6 million ha and Romania 12.5 million ha. The analyses presented in Figures 17 and 18 relate to livestock farming, with an analysis according to the economic size of farms. farms with predominantly non-family labour (less than 50 % of the regular labour force); This page was last modified on 23 January 2020, at 15:34. The rising number of livestock units on very large farms and falling numbers for all other size classes resulted in a large increase in the share of livestock units reared on very large farms, as shown in Figure 17. Map 1 shows the average economic size of farms for NUTS level 2 regions. In 2013, the EU-28’s regular agricultural labour force was composed of 8.7 million AWUs; men accounted for almost two thirds (64.8 %) of the total. At the other end of the range, there was almost parity between the sexes in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, as the male share of the regular labour force was situated within the range of 53.7–54.9 %. Figures 15 and 16 show the different patterns of crops (according to the economic size of farms) with a focus on very small and small farms on the one hand, and very large farms on the other. One third (32.7 %) of the EU's agricultural holdings (here-on termed 'farms') were located in Romania, much more than any other Member State; it was about the same as all the farms in Poland (13.5 % of the EU-28 total), Italy (10.9 %) and Spain (9.0 %) combined, the three Member States with the next highest number of farms.