Extensive stock-raising and diary farming (cattle fattening and dairying, pig fattening and laying-hen husbandry) play a very important role in Austria due mainly to the natural production conditions and a farmer-based ownership structure. In exposed mountain regions in particular, livestock farming that maximises the use of grassland represents a significant economic sector.
While surveys of livestock in Austria regularly supply information on stocks of farm animals, the statistics on animal production, e.g. milk statistics, poultry statistics, etc., provide users with extensive data material on highly specialised economic branches in agriculture that are also of great importance for Austria as a whole.