of the country's production); strawberry. Livestock In 2017, the southern region gathered around 12% of Brazil's cattle (27 million head of cattle). In sheep farming, in 2017, the South Region was the second largest in the country, with 4.2 million head. Sheep shearing activity continued to be predominant in the South, which is responsible for 99% of wool production in the country. Rio Grande do Sul continued to be the state with the highest national participation, representing 94.1% of the total. The municipalities of Santana do Livramento, Alegrete and Quaraí led the activity. Currently, meat production has become the main objective of sheep farming in the State, due to the increase in prices paid to the producer that made the activity more attractive and profitable. Intensive livestock farming is also highly developed in the South, which ranks first in the ranking of Brazilian milk production. Some of the milk produced in the South benefits from the dairy industries. The South has 35.7% of the Brazilian milk production, competing with the Southeast (which was the largest producer until 2014), which has 34.2%. The southeast has the largest herd of cows milked: 30.4% of the total of 17.1 million existing in Brazil. The highest productivity, however, is that of the Southern Region, with an average of 3,284 liters per cow per year, which is why it has led the ranking of milk production since 2015. The municipality of Castro, in Paraná, was the largest producer in 2017, with 264 million liters of milk. Paraná is already the second largest national producer with 4.7 billion liters, only surpassed by Minas Gerais. In pork, the 3 southern states are the largest producers in the country. Santa Catarina is the largest producer in Brazil. The State is responsible for 28.38% of the country's slaughter and 40.28% of Brazilian pork exports. Paraná, for its part, has a breeding stock of 667 thousand inhabited dwellings, with a herd representing 17.85% of the Brazilian total. Paraná occupies the second position in the country's productive ranking, with 21.01%, and the third place among exporting states, with 14.22%. In third place in Brazil is Rio Grande do Sul, with almost 15% participation. Poultry farming is strong in the South. In 2018, the South region, with an emphasis on the creation of chickens for slaughter, was responsible for almost half of the Brazilian total (46.9%). Paraná only represented 26.2%. Paraná occupies