Under the title "General livestock survey", around 7 000 farms are directly surveyed using a stratified random sample every year for the reference date December 1st. These livestock reports of pigs, sheep and goats are extrapolated to federal province and national results.
The annual calculation of the pig population for the reference date June 1st has been carried out since 2012 using a regression model (prior to that: sample surveys) based on data from the consumer health information system (VIS). The separate determination of the cattle population is carried out for both reference dates by evaluating the central cattle database of Agrarmarkt Austria (AMA). The results come from an intersection of AMA and Rinderzucht Austria data, with the detailed processing of the results being carried out by the Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research (BAB) since December 2003 (prior to that: sample surveys).