Cantabria has always been one of the largest milk producers in Spain. Now their ranchers are going extinct

The Cantabrian livestock sector is in full transformation. Especially if we talk about milk production. In recent years the region has seen the disappearance hundreds of farms of beef. The phenomenon can be explained (in part) by a tendency towards concentration, but that has not in any case prevented the decline in production. The result is that, although Cantabria continues to have a relevant weight in it national sectorfinds itself with a complex panorama: its dairy farmers are on the verge of extinction.

What do the figures say? The phenomenon is complex and to understand it, several keys must be used. The most relevant is probably the contribution last summer the Cantabrian Government itself, when disclosing a balance sheet that shows that the region lost almost 400 dairy farms in just six years.

From the 1,167 registered in March 2019, it rose to 770 during the same month of 2025. A few days ago The Confidential public an information on the sector that shows an even lower figure, with 749 milking farms.

Is there more data? Yes. The balance sheet provided by the Cantabrian Executive is interesting because it shows that this loss of farms is not the result of a one-off restructuring, but rather a sustained trend over time.

If 2019 ended with 1,113 farms, in 2020 there were already 1,050, 976 in 2021, 905 in 2022, 847 in 2023 and 784 at the end of 2024. In the first quarter of 2025 the census was at 770. The values do not coincide with those of the yearbook published in 2024 by Agriculture, but The trend is basically the same.

Is it just the number of farms going down? No. The loss of farms can be explained in part by a trend towards the concentration. That is to say, perhaps in the community there are fewer farms but those that exist accumulate more cattle. The rest of the sector’s indicators, however, show that it is far from strengthening.

The census of milking cows has experienced a fluctuating trend in recent years, with ups and downs. Its trend has been less clear and pronounced than that of farms, but the final balance is not good.

Why’s that? In 2019 there were registered in the community 49,486 cattle bred for milk production. In 2024 there were already 48,186, about 1,300 less. In between, the sector has experienced some important ups and downs. In 2022, for example, the census reached 64,633 cows after growing by around 7% in one year, but in 2023 it again experienced a considerable decline.

Production data is also not buoyant. Both those collected by Agriculture and the impressions conveyed by the sector. Recently admitted to The Confidential which has encountered a decrease in the collection volume, something unusual not so long ago. “Production in Cantabria has fallen by 15% in the last five years,” the national federation FENIL states.

How does that affect the region? The key I gave it in December The Montañés Diary. The loss of dairy farms has meant that in the community there are now several dozen municipalities without farms of this type.

To be precise, there are 26 towns without a trace of the industry, a list that includes towns with an urban profile, such as Castro Urdiales, but also others that have been more linked to the agricultural and livestock sector, such as Anievas or Cabuérniga. At the end of last year there were almost a dozen and a half nuclei in which only one livestock farm dedicated to dairy survived.

What is the change due to? There are several factors at play. Beyond the general tendency of the bovine sector towards concentration that occurs in Spain, with the transition from many small farms to a few larger ones, the drift of the Cantabrian industry is explained by social and economic issues.

They close farms because there is no generational change. Neither more nor less. “The first factor that explains this is the advanced age of the region’s ranchers. The average is between 58 and 60 years old,” explains to The Confidential Luis Pérez, from Ugam-Coag. “They reach retirement and close the farm, no one continues.”

And why does that happen? Again, due to a combination of factors. Taking care of farms requires intense and constant work (“You have to milk twice a day, every day”) that is not always rewarded when selling the product in a volatile market with fluctuating prices.

“You can be very well and in two months go down and be very bad. There is no type of stability,” Perez adds.. Against this backdrop, there are more tempting niches within livestock farming, such as breeding for the meat sector. While Cantabria has seen the number of farms dedicated to milking decrease, professionals in the meat sector have increased.

What is happening with that sector? “The majority of those who enter are children of ranchers. And they almost always join with beef cows,” comments Pérez in The Montañés Diary. “In both cases you have to attend to the animals every day, but with milk you have to milk, yes or yes, every 12 hours.” Before the pandemic, there were 7,827 livestock farms of this type. In 2023 there were already more than 8,100, although since then that record also seems to have been reduced.

Images | Nicolas Vigier (Flickr) and Department of agriculture

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