Top 10 Smallest Whales? What Our Records Really Hold

If you came here for a ranked list of the ten smallest whale species, here is the straight answer: our records do not hold a single whale. What we hold is a price table for farmed goods — 75,264 rows of price observations covering cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry, milk, eggs, cereals, vegetables and wood — and not one line in it names a whale, a dolphin, a porpoise or any other marine animal.

So instead of inventing sizes to fill a list, we will show you exactly what is in the record. If it is whale facts you need, a dedicated marine science reference will serve you far better than we can. If you buy or sell livestock, grain or vegetables, stay with us — the numbers below are ones we can stand behind.

Why we cannot give you a top 10 smallest whales

Our record does one job. It stores price observations for farmed commodities, pooled from all the countries we cover. Twenty-five commodity lines sit in it, all of them food or timber. There is no marine species anywhere in it, and no biology, size or species data of any kind.

Every figure in it is a price — a currency amount per kg or per tonne. Weight appears only as the unit you trade in, never as the size of an individual animal. There are no metres, no feet, no centimetres and no per-animal bodyweights. A ranking of whales simply cannot be built from this.

The questions we have to leave open

• We cannot name the smallest whale species, because no whale species is named in what we hold.
• We cannot tell you whether "smallest" should be judged on adult body length, adult weight or size at birth. We hold none of those measurements.
• We cannot say whether smaller cetaceans such as porpoises and river dolphins belong on a "smallest whales" list, or where that boundary is drawn.
• We cannot tell you where such animals live, what they eat, how long they live, or how many there are.
• We cannot tell you anything about conservation status, protection rules or hunting rules.

We would rather leave a gap than fill it with a number we cannot back up. That is the same rule we apply to farm prices, and it is why the figures further down come with their limits attached.

The real top 10 in our records

Here is a list of ten we can give you in full: the ten commodity lines carrying the most price observations, out of the 25 lines on record. Row count matters to you as a reader. A line built on thousands of observations gives a steadier picture than one built on a few hundred.

1. Heifers, live — 2,213 rows. €2 to €10 per kg, average €6. Most recent observation 2026-08-30.
2. Cows, live — 2,102 rows. €2 to €8 per kg, average €5.
3. Young bulls — 1,757 rows. €2 to €9 per kg, average €6.
4. Young cattle — 990 rows. €2 to €11 per kg, average €6. The €11 is the top of the whole live cattle band.
5. Feed barley — 776 rows. Prints as €0 per kg at lowest, highest and average.
6. Breadmaking common wheat — 731 rows. Also €0 per kg at lowest, highest and average.
7. Cow milk — 705 rows. EUR35 to EUR3795 per tonne, average EUR464. Most recent observation 2025-01-31.
8. Pig carcass — 703 rows. €1 to €3 per kg, average €2. Most recent observation 2026-08-30.
9. Feed wheat — 656 rows. €0 per kg at lowest, highest and average.
10. Steers — 648 rows. €3 to €9 per kg, average €7 — the highest average of the live cattle lines.

Cattle dominate the record. The four largest lines of all are cattle categories, and Steers add a further 648 rows on top of them.

Live cattle and pigs, priced in euro per kg

The live animal lines sit in a fairly narrow band, from €2 to €11 per kg across the five cattle categories. Here they are side by side:

• Heifers: €2 to €10 per kg, average €6 (2,213 rows).
• Cows: €2 to €8 per kg, average €5 (2,102 rows).
• Young bulls: €2 to €9 per kg, average €6 (1,757 rows).
• Young cattle: €2 to €11 per kg, average €6 (990 rows).
• Steers: €3 to €9 per kg, average €7 (648 rows) — the strongest average of the group.
• Pig carcass: €1 to €3 per kg, average €2 (703 rows).

All six of these lines were last observed on 2026-08-30.

Two things to keep in mind

Cattle are recorded by category, not by breed. Heifers, cows, young bulls, young cattle and steers are the only labels used, and no breed name appears anywhere. So if you are trying to work out what your particular breed should fetch, this record will not tell you.

We also cannot tell you whether these cattle prices are liveweight or deadweight, or what weight class or market stage each line refers to. That is not stated, and we will not guess. Your nearest dealer, mart or abattoir will tell you which basis your local market quotes on.

Milk, eggs and meat, priced in EUR per tonne

A second group of lines is quoted per tonne rather than per kg. The ranges here are much wider:

• Sheep meat: EUR562 to EUR29682 per tonne, average EUR3160 (558 rows).
• Cattle meat: EUR988 to EUR20740 per tonne, average EUR2728 (519 rows).
• Hen eggs: EUR499 to EUR20565 per tonne, average EUR2058 (645 rows).
• Pig meat: EUR710 to EUR12089 per tonne, average EUR1826 (471 rows).
• Chicken meat: EUR735 to EUR10148 per tonne, average EUR1381 (570 rows).
• Cow milk: EUR35 to EUR3795 per tonne, average EUR464 (705 rows).

Sheep meat stands out twice over. It has the highest average of this group at EUR3160 per tonne, and its top figure of EUR29682 per tonne is the highest single number printed anywhere in our record.

Notice too that pig appears twice on two different bases — Pig carcass in euro per kg, and Pig meat in EUR per tonne. How the two relate is not set out, so please do not treat one as a conversion of the other. Every line in this per-tonne group was last observed on 2025-01-31.

Grain, vegetables and wood, priced in Indian rupees per kg

A third group is quoted in rupees per kg, using Indian market naming:

• Wheat (Wheat): ₹22 to ₹35 per kg, average ₹26 (538 rows).
• Wheat (Dara): ₹22 to ₹28 per kg, average ₹25 (610 rows).
• Green Chilli: ₹10 to ₹245 per kg, average ₹36 (426 rows) — the widest range of any rupee line.
• Bhindi (Ladies Finger): ₹4 to ₹90 per kg, average ₹24 (529 rows).
• Cucumbar (Kheera): ₹0 to ₹80 per kg, average ₹22 (429 rows).
• Brinjal: ₹0 to ₹80 per kg, average ₹21 (469 rows).
• Bottle gourd: ₹4 to ₹75 per kg, average ₹17 (490 rows).
• Potato (FAQ): ₹1 to ₹32 per kg, average ₹7 (635 rows).
• Wood (FAQ): ₹1 to ₹56 per kg, average ₹6 (604 rows).

Wood is the only non-food line we carry, and it is priced by weight like the food commodities rather than by volume or by piece. The vegetables are the most volatile figures on record — green chilli alone swings from ₹10 to ₹245 per kg — which will not surprise you if you have ever sold a perishable crop in a glut.

You will see the grade labels "FAQ" and "Dara" on these lines. We cannot define them for you, because our record does not. Your local market office or a trader you deal with regularly will explain what those grades mean where you sell.

Read these figures with your eyes open

Three units and currencies, no conversion

The record mixes euro per kg, EUR per tonne and rupees per kg, with no exchange rate or common basis supplied. As printed, the lines are not directly comparable with each other. Compare within a group, not across groups.

The cereal lines print as €0

Feed barley, breadmaking common wheat, feed wheat and feed maize all show €0 at lowest, highest and average per kg. The figures come through without decimals and no explanation of the rounding is given. Treat those four as unusable for pricing decisions until you have a local quote in hand.

Three different "most recent" dates

Freshness splits into three groups. The euro-per-kg livestock and cereal lines were last observed on 2026-08-30. The EUR-per-tonne animal product lines were last observed on 2025-01-31 — roughly nineteen months earlier. The rupee-per-kg lines are the freshest, at 2026-09-04. Why the per-tonne group stops where it does is not something we can explain.

Worldwide, with no country split

Every figure covers all countries pooled together, with sample rows and manually entered rows left out. There is no country-by-country breakdown published, and the coverage reflects the single feed the data comes from, faostat, rather than any local market survey. Nor can we tell you what date the observations start from — only the most recent date on each line.

Where this leaves you

On whales, we have nothing, and we would rather say so plainly than dress up a guess as a fact. On farm prices, we have 75,264 observations across 25 commodity lines, and we have shown you the ranges, the averages, the row counts and the dates so you can judge them yourself.

Use these numbers as a rough backdrop, not as a quote. For the price you will actually get this week — and for what grade, weight class or basis your buyer works on — the person to ask is still the dealer, vet or market office nearest to you.