Many livestock farms have disappeared and others will do it as they live under profitability threshold.

Spanish farmers finished 2010 with satisfaction, because it has not been a good year for them as reflected in the EGF website (Spanish Federation of Associations of Select Livestock): they were afraid of the arrival of 2011 as some predictions suggested that it would not be better. The first two months of 2011 have shown it to be true.

The sharp increase in cereals, pulses, fodder, fertilizers, oil and energy have gone up production costs whereas there has not been a proporcionate income. Taking into account statistics, farmers are right to complain: in the last five years, high production costs and low prices they received for their goods, have caused that livestock income has fallen by 26%. This means that many agricultural and livestock exploitations have disappeared and others would do it as they live under  profitability line.

In this sense, the figures that have been provided in three specific Spanish  regions are clear: in Extremadura, it has been estimated that about three thousand farms have disappeared over the last two years, in Andalusia, a third of goat ones have closed in the last three years, and in Castila y leon, the closure has affected to 4,558 farms.

These bad data are not only here: in rural areas if the field goes wrong, the other economic sectors are also affected as in most rural communities the importance of agriculture and livestock is enormous, and therefore its impact on local progress.