Cantabria

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

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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. CCAA cow’s milk production on farms (2024 – data in thousands of Tms) Galicia 3,095,539 Asturias 535,863 Cantabria 404,850 the Basque Country 163,395 Navarre 280,273 Rioja 22,832 Aragon 176,416 Catalonia 770,981 Balearics 60,851 Castile and León 925,809 Madrid 55,427 Castile-La Mancha 296,292 Valencian Community 86,356 Murcia 68,684 Estremadura 18,618 Andalusia 557,998 Canary Islands 55,881 Spain 7,576,063 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 In Xataka | We have tried to find out if science prefers whole, semi or skimmed milk and we have stayed as we were

Asturias and Cantabria travel on trains that are more than 40 years old and their renewal has been delayed again

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Year 2020. Renfe awards CAF the delivery of 31 trains to operate on the Cercanías services of Asturias and Cantabria. The reason was as simple as it was understandable: the average age of the fleet was already 28 years. Four years later, the renewal of the promised trains is once again delayed. It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. “In principle”. This is what Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of Renfe, has confirmed, who a few days ago assured that the promised trains for Asturias and Cantabria will not arrive until 2027 in an interview with the specialized media. Trenvista. If the plans are fulfilled, of course. And these same trains should arrive next year. In 2024, Transport reiterated its intention that the first tests would be carried out in the first half of 2026 and it was assured that we would see them on the roads that same year. Last September, yes in 2025, was still expected that the trains would make an appearance in a few months. Now, Fernández Heredia says that “in principle, these trains will be in service in 2027.” A statement that leaves fear of new future delays floating. The trains. What Renfe awarded to CAF was the delivery of 31 new trains to be distributed between the Cercanías services of Cantabria and Asturias. When said award was announced It was mentioned that the intention was to renew a fleet that was already an average of 28 years old. It was 2020 and the contract was valued at 258 million euros. Five years later, the residents of Asturias and Cantabria will continue traveling on trains with more than four decades behind them in some cases. At the moment, there is no trace of the 31 Metric Gauge trains (25 electric and six hybrid) that should be able to circulate at a maximum of 100 km/h and have space to transport bicycles. The tunnels. It was the great scandal of this award. In 2023, when CAF began building the trains, it found that something strange was happening with the order. The trains ordered They didn’t enter through the tunnels… more or less. The trains that were intended to be launched are too wide for the Asturian and Cantabrian infrastructure. Order FOM/1630/2015established new measures for gauges on newly built roads. These new measures aim to leave more space between the train and the walls of the tunnels to facilitate evacuations in case of breakdown and were the ones that were sent from Adif to CAFwithout taking into account the infrastructure prior to 2015. Hence it was said that the new trains for Asturias and Cantabria They did not enter through the tunnels. Faced with this situation, there was no choice but to ask: is it better to change the trains or change the infrastructure? Given the cost of the second intervention, the first was chosen. Yes, sure. Despite everything, the intention was the same: to maintain the plans that the trains would arrive in 2026. Now we know that this will not be the case and that they will do so in 2027… “in principle”, in the words of the president of Renfe himself. In The Commerce They review all the occasions in which Renfe has maintained its intention to have the trains ready next year. In addition to the cases already mentioned, the Government reiterated its intentions in February 2024 and July 2024. Since then, silence. “It rains in the wet”. This is what the Cantabrian Government complains about when asked by The Confidential. The regional Executive focuses on the fact that this latest delay is just one more of all the drifts that the case has had and the constant problems that citizens experience. The Association of Rail and Mobility Users (Affecom) highlights that from “Luarca to Oviedo there are about 90 kilometers and it takes almost three hours. (…) It takes us the same time to go to Madrid as it does to travel 90 kilometers through the Principality of Asturias.” And they highlight another detail: there are many breakdowns in stations where there is no coverage of any kind. This is a problem because, first of all, the passenger has no way to communicate by mobile phone to notify of a delay. It would not be (so) serious if it were exceptional but this summer, between July and August, the Asturian PP assures that 800 incidents were recorded that affected 1,000 services. Photo | André Marques 432 In Xataka | “In 1961 it took Bilbao three hours and five minutes. Now it takes three and ten”: Cantabria and Spain’s drama with the train

Cantabria feared to become “La Ibiza del Norte”. For his horror, he already has “the Magaluf del Norte”

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There are slogans that pass without penalty or glory and others that capture such an idea that end up rooting or even (in networks) viral. It happened little over a yearwhen Thousands of Cantabrians They went out to protest against the Tourist From his community to the shout of “We do not want to be the Northern Ibiza!” Now the controversy returns to the same region before another threat that has been summarized in an equally powerful phrase: there are those who warn that one of its most famous sand, the strut, runs the risk of becoming “The Magaluf del Norte”. The debate is served. A place: El Puntal Beach. Cantabria has 284 kilometers of coast, but few places in that large coastal strip are as emblematic as the beach of The Puntalin Somo (Ribomontán to the sea), in the middle of Santander Bay. The space is included in the Natura 2000 Network Within the dunes of El Puntal and the Estario of Miera, which stands out for its 49 plant formations. Twenty of them are also priority and the area of special interest is distributed in the area. A word: Megabotellón. Despite that environmental value and being a Protected spacethe sand becomes sometimes a great Botellodrome. People are in the area and the beach becomes an outdoor parties space. It is nothing new. It has happened relatively frequently during the summer months of recent years. In July 2020in full pandemic, the Civil Guard imposed dozens of complaints after evicting a bottle With hundreds of young people. And in August last year it happened Something similarwith a Macrobotellón that brought together thousands of young people who left in their path a lot of garbage. And what happened? That the story It has been repeated again. A few weeks ago the sand was filled with thousands of young people who crowded the beach and left long tails to move by boat from Santander. It is not necessary to imagine it. The local press and The networks They spread images of a strut to the flag, a massive party that the mayor of Ribamontán to the sea, Francisco Asón, watched with impotence. “We are in contact with the Civil Guard because they have already warned us that this is the hecatombe,” I recognized To the EFE agency. Party … And something else. The problem is not just saturation. Much of the controversy causes it what leaves behind: bags, cans, bottles … a large amount of garbage scattered on the sand, as a Cantabrist denunciation, which the next day visited the same beach to show in A video dirt. The recording speaks for itself. “The bottles in the strut begins to be unsustainable. We cannot look elsewhere while deteriorating one of the most beautiful and fragile environments of the bay,” Crows Daniel Fernández, socialist spokesman in Santander. Click on the image to go to Tweet. “Bottle, noise and dirt”. In recent days the controversy has been climbing with reproaches of political parties, institutions and environmentalists. At the end of July several counselors of the Government of Cantabria and the mayor of Ribamontán to the sea sent A letter To the Government delegate to claim that it ends the “mass and illegal” concentrations, parties that, “fill with bottles, noise and dirt a protected space.” The situation seemed relax Last weekend, but that has not prevented more and more voices from asking for solutions. One of the most overwhelming is that of Ecologists in Action, which warns of the situation of El Puntal, its “irreparable footprints” and the “risk” that the bottles represent. “A natural space turned into a shitwith bottles, plastics, food remains and butts dispersed by the sand “, emphasize The organization before crossing out “inadmissible” that the authorities allow the beach to become “a landfill.” “It is not a recreational space without norms, it is a public good of high environmental value whose conservation is a collective duty. It is not enough to send a cleaning team the next day. That does not repair the damage,” he remarks. The northern Magaluf? Just like a year ago Voices were heard rejecting that Cantabria becomes “the North Ibiza”, in recent days those that compare the situation of El Puntal with MagalufMallorca beach wrapped in controversy for the videos that show The excesses with drugs or sex in public spaces. “They have turned a protected area into the Magaluf del Norte”, complaint Cantabrist “Hundreds of tourists come to our natural environments to use them as their private club and turn them into landfills.” They are not the only ones that point in that direction. The PSOE He has claimed Measures to protect the coast “Ante Avalachas” such as El Puntal and speaks of “more than 4,000 people from Botón”. United Left too He has demanded that all administrations meet to “put an end to lack of control” in the Arenal, a measure that proposes to extend to other natural spaces in the region. “Cantabria is fashionable”. Not all institutions share the tone or focus the focus on the same point. The regional president, María José Sáenz de Buruaga, considers “a serious irresponsibility to alert tourism phobia” and asks not to transmit “a distorted image” of what happens in the community. “Cantabria is fashionable and lives a splendid and excellent moment. We are not the Northern Ibiza. Much less Magaluf,” the leader emphasizes in statements collected by eldiario.es. His executive claims to the Government Delegation that reinforces the controls. “It must act when there is a security problem.” Images | Cantabrist 1 and 2 and Federico Jordá (Flickr) In Xataka | The north of Spain has been complaining about mass tourism for years. Asturias has discovered the bitter consequences of losing it

Cantabria wants more visitors in the Cabárceno Park. So you will create a large alpine slide to travel at 40 km/h

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He Cabárceno Parkin Cantabria, he is famous for his animal reserves and having reached a curious World milestone: Become a reference in the captivity of African elephants. Now those responsible want the enclosure to be known for something else, a spectacular Alpine slide of 1.2 kilometers in which speeds of 40 km/h will be reached. At the moment we only have the plans Included in your technical report, but they are enough to open the appetite. What is your goal? That the park is more attractive and capture more visitors. Two words: Alpine Tobogán. He Cabárceno Parka half -way space between the traditional zoo and an enclosure to safaris nestled in the middle of Santander region, wants to become more attractive. And he wants to do it big, with a claim designed for the most adventurous: a Alpine slide. Also known as “Alpine Coaster”the alpine slides are neither more nor less than rail circuits designed so that visitors can slide through them aboard sled taking advantage of the slope of the mountains. In Andorra they have a very popular one: The Tobotroncwith a route of more than five kilometers. Trips at 40 km/h. The alpine slide that Cantabria wants to build may not reach the size of Tobotronc or The one of Hydersin Austria, where they have built another similar structure of almost three kilometers and a slope of 640 meters, but will be equally fascinating. According to He has revealed The autonomous government will measure 1.2 km (330 m of climb and 854 of descent) and those who rise to it can reach 40 km/h, although it will be the users themselves who regulate the march. 360 degree sleds and curls. They are not the only data that has transcended the project, promoted by the public company Cantur. The Cantabria Government has revealed that the infrastructure will have 25 sleds with capacity for two people who will save a level of 75 my will advance in a journey in Zigzag, with curves and two loopings of 360º. Nor is it necessary to imagine it. The Executive has published the Basic projectin which his future layout appears. Autumn of 2025? The project itself is not new. In October, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Region, Luis Martínez Abad, He already spoke of him in Parliament, where he broke out some characteristics of the future slide. As he said then, the investment to carry out the structure would reach 1.5 million euros and the idea was that it was already operational in the autumn of 2025. The Montañés newspaper reveals Now that in the technical document an investment of three million euros, VAT included. It also seems difficult for the structure to be ready before 2026. That does not mean that the initiative is stopped. On the contrary. Yeah It has been news These days it is because the Government of Cantabria has just released the construction project. During the next few days anyone interested in the project can consult in The web of the General Directorate of Urbanism the plans and calculations of the future slide and, in case it creates it necessary, to present allegations. Aerial view of the area where the “Alpine Coaster” will be installed. Objective: Diversify. In October, during his speech at the Plenary of Parliament, Martínez Abad He claimed That the future Alpine slide “is not a whim, but an opportunity.” Now the government insists on the same idea: its purpose is to reinforce the attractiveness of the park to visit more people throughout the year. “The objective of this infrastructure is reason the Minister of Tourism. In 2023 the enclosure received more than 650,000 visitors, but that figure actually hides two major challenges. The first is that most of those visits They concentrated During a very concrete time of the year, during Holy Week and the summer months. The second challenge is that the enclosure is difficult to awaken the interest of the youngest population. The idea, The Cantabrian Government emphasizesis to attract people between 14 and 24 years old, which “less interest shows” now in the park. Wink. The slide will be located in an area close to the northern entrance of Obregón, “in a field not used of the installation,” Clarifies the Regional Executivewhich remembers that when planning the layout, a part of the park away from the animals has been sought (in Cabárceno, zebras, camels or Elephantsamong many other species), with trees and an adequate slope. The technicians have also wanted to launch a wink to the mining past in the region. “The project is developed in a unique environment of the vicinity of the local good of the old facilities of the Cabárceno Hierra Mineso it contemplates integrating the necessary infrastructure into the landscape environment, using cut steel, treated wood or glass to offer an external appearance similar to mining facilities ” Clarify. Among other things, those who climb to the sleds may contemplate the mining vestiges of caul. Images | Cantabria government, Jeremy Thompson (Flickr) and Tuscasasrural (Flickr) In Xataka | In his fight not to be “the North Ibiza”, Cantabria has taken a radical measure: limiting tourism in iconic areas

Two villages in Cantabria want to join through a new road. They have encountered an obstacle: the bear

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On paper the project of the Reinosa-Potes road It is ‘alone’ that: the project of a new road between two Cantabrian regions, an infrastructure not excessively long (14 or 20 kmdepending on the option that is chosen) that would mobilize about 100 million euros in investment. That on paper. In practice the idea has generated a considerable debate In Cantabria in which two other hot issues are played in The region Spain: the Tourist and the complex balance in protection of the brown bear. The debate is served. What happened? That in the Cantabrian policy an old project recovered by the PP government is gaining prominence: the Potes-Reinosa road, a vial of some 14 or 20 kilometers (depending on the alternative that is chosen) that I would unite the regions of Campoo and Liebana crossing the heart of the Cantabrian mountain range. The idea is not new. He already tried to get ahead in the 90s, at the time of the president Juan Hormaecheaalthough its origins can go back further, at the end of the Decade of 1960. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Why is it important? Because, beyond its extension, technical characteristics or budget, estimated among the 90 and 100 million eurosthe Potes-Reinosa road project has implications that play some of the most relevant songs of Cantabrian (and Spanish) news: Touristintegration and environmental conservation, directly affecting, according to their detractors, the efforts to recover the brown bear in the region. And what is the reason? That the road (a new section from the CA-183 and the PK 20 of the CA-184 endowed with two lanes of 3.5 meters) would pass through the heart of the Cantabrian mountain range. And so, They warn their detractorsit would have an environmental impact of draft. “The northern slope of the Sierra del Cordel and the Sierra de Híjar, both included in the Special Conservation Zone (ZEC) ‘Altos del Nansa and Saja and Alto Campoo’ would A manifesto that exceeds 1,900 signatures and has the support of at least 200 experts. In The documentpromoted by Cantabrist and individuals, including scientists and researchers of ecology, zoology, geography and hydraulic, the reasons why they reject the new road are used. But above all there is one of weight: its impact on habitats and species that seeks to protect precisely the ZEC zone declaration. “It would not only endanger valuable mountain ecosystems, but would go against the conservation commitments of Spain.” And what do the bears have to do? That is another of the weight arguments put in The manifestoin which in addition to warning that the new road “would fragment” habitats, “would alter” ecological corridors and vehicle traffic would generate noise and light pollution, warn of the impact that it would have in particular on the populations of bears. “The road crosses the areas delimited by the Pardo Bear Recovery Plan in Cantabria,” ditch. “These areas have been specifically designated for the protection and recovery of an endangered species, whose habitat is already seriously fragmented,” The manifesto wields Before pointing out that the works could lead to sanctions and challenges. In the event that the project is carried out and the works are terminated, Cantabristas points the risk of bear abuses. Why is it interesting? The warning connects with the debate about the recovery of the bear in the Peninsular North. After being almost convicted of The disappearance for the harassment of the poachers and the deterioration of their habitat, the bear populations in the Cantabrian mountain range and other parts of the country They have increased In recent years, which in turn has had multiple derivatives. In Asturias or León there are ranchers, Farmers and neighbors that They warn Of their negative impact, while in Somiedo, Asturias, they have seen in the populations of bears A powerful tourist reef that attracts every summer to thousands of visitors who aspire to see copies in freedom in the Cantabrian mountain range. Now in Cantabria they warn of the damage that would cause the noise and traffic of the new road in the behavior of the bears and their mating. “It would be incompatible with the conservation objectives”, They need. A tourist road? The project touches another of the hottest issues in Cantabria: the risk of tourist massification, which He has already taken Thousands of neighbors to the street shouted from “We do not want to be the Ibiza del Norte”. He manifest Remember that Liébana and Campoo, the regions that would connect the vial, are “two widely tourist areas” and questions the real objective of the project, taking into account that both populations are already “connected through other routes of the road network.” “At a time when sustainability and conservation must be priorities, and in a context of accelerated climate change and global biodiversity crisis, this type of macroprojects that serve only to massify tourism go in the opposite direction,” They add The detractors. As a Cantabrist complaint even deployed a banner close to 30 meters In Peña Labra in which “our mountains defend themselves.” And why are you worried? In An interview With eldiario.es, the mayor of Potes María José Bustamante (PSOE) pointed in the same direction: “We understand that the enormous environmental cost or should or should be assumed because the only mobile we find to have launched this pharaonic project is none other than the tourist, and that is what we are already served in Liébana.” Over the last months the region has reached take action To limit the influx of visitors at certain iconic points, such as the Cabezón de la Sal or the Lighthouse of the Horse of Santoña. Are all criticism? No. The Government of Cantabria defend The importance of the project and questions that actions such as Cantabristas really represent the feeling of the inhabitants of the region. His Development Councilor, Roberto Media, also insists that the infrastructure is “of first necessity for many” Cantabrians, not a work designed for tourists. Moreover, the leader warns that … Read more

We have just rewritten the genealogy of the inhabitants of the Cantabria of the Paleolithic. Thanks to DNA found in the mud

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If we want to enter tens of thousands of years ago in the genetics of our ancestors, the only path we have is to study the bone remains in search of the low genetic material remaining in them. Or at least that used to be the case. 46,000 years ago. Because a new study has achieved Back 46,000 years in the past by analyzing sedimentary challenges in a Cantabrian cave. The genetic material found showed a common genetic ancestry among the inhabitants of the cave and populations settled in southern France in the same era. The mirror and his red lady. The history of the study of the archaeological site of the cave of El Mirón, located in Cantabria, begins with excavations initiated in 1996. Archaeological prospects would give one of its main fruits in 2010, with the discovery of the red lady of El Mirón. It was a partial skeleton that belonged to a woman from between 35 and 40 years deceased about 19,000 years ago. The appellation is due to the fact that the bone remains were found covered with a red ocher paint whose origin would not have been in the direct environment of the cave. Sedadna. One of the most striking details of the study is in its methodology. The new analysis of the remains of the site did not focus on the bone remains of the red lady, even on other types of bones. Instead they noticed the mud. The Sedadna methodology focuses on the sedimentary remains of DNA that still keep genetic information about the ancient inhabitants of the cave, humans or animals. These remains, Explain the study responsible for the study They allow us to ride ourselves very prior to that of the Red Lady, up to 46,000 years ago, in the Musteriense era, when the Neanderthals still inhabited Europe. From Fournol to Cantabria. However, the most relevant period in the new study is the Solutrense, the period in which the last maximum glacier occurred, approximately between 25,000 and 21,000 years ago. The sedadna extracted in the strata of this era allowed genetically to link the human populations that inhabited the cave in this era with other human groups. Specifically with the one known as Fournol lineagea group that we link with some deposits in Spain and in France. The new study allows us to better trace the genealogies of the human groups that inhabited the Peninsular North in Paleolithic. A genealogy that also covers the ancestry of the Villabruna lineage, which would have reached the region in bass Magdaleniensefrom the Balkans and northern Italy. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Nature Communications. Great carnivores. Another study key is in animals that inhabited the cave and, therefore, that they could be found in these times among the Iberian fauna. The team found traces belonging to carnivores such as leopard and hyenas, as well as the Dole, Wild Dog Asian or Indian Wild Dog (Cuon Alpinus), A canid now present in Southeast Asia. They also found DNA belonging to ungulates such as mammoths and rhinos, in addition to deer. In Xataka | “Look dad, ox”: the curious story of how an eight -year -old girl unwittingly discovered the paintings of the Altamira cave Image | University of New Mexico

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