The total number of cattle in Ireland in 2023 stood at 7,341,481, according to data published today (Tuesday, December 17) by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The Farm Structure Survey 2023 report shows that the number of cattle in the country increased by 438,835 (6%) from 2013 to 2023.
Since 2013, the overall number of Irish farms with cattle fell by 8,756 (-8%) to 102,564 farms last year.
In 2023, there were 16,844 farms with dairy cows (2013: 18,145), 61,442 with other cows (2013: 77,205) and 101,597 with other cattle (2013: 110,350).
Cattle
According to the report, the number of dairy cows in 2023 was 1,646,641, while the number of other cows was 872,148.
In 2013, there had been a similar number of dairy cows to other cows, at 1,163,201 and 1,150,274 respectively.
However, in the 10 years from 2013 to 2023 the number of dairy cows has increased by 483,440 animals (41.6%), while the number of other cows has decreased by 24% or 278,126 animals.
The report states there were 4,822,692 other cattle in 2023, down from 4,589,171 a decade earlier.
The CSO said that the average herd size on all cattle enterprises increased from 62 animals to 72 animals (16%) since 2013.
The average herd size for dairy cows has increased significantly (53%) from 64 animals to 98 animals. While the national average herd sizes for other cattle was 47, up from 42 in 2013.
The regions with the most cattle in 2023 were the mid-west covering Clare, Tipperary and Limerick (1,477,915) and southwest comprising Cork and Kerry (1,446,490).
The county which recorded the most cattle last year was Cork with 1,101,229 animals, of which almost 398,000 are dairy cows.
The report shows the county with the highest average cattle herd size is Waterford on 139, followed by Kilkenny on 138 and Tipperary on 117.
CSO
In 2023, there were 5,550,121 sheep in Ireland, which up by 607,899 (12%) since 2013.
The CSO said that this increase is due to a rise in ewe numbers by 309,040 animals (12%) and in the other sheep category by 298,859 animals (13%).
There were 33,656 farms with sheep in 2023. This is 2,897 fewer farms (-8%) with sheep than there was in 2013.
The west and border regions reported the highest sheep numbers in 2023 with 1,553,190 and 1,349,115 animals respectively.
The county with the most sheep was Donegal with 773,056 animals.
The CSO data shows there were 1,748,377 pigs in Ireland last year, up 13% from 1,551,715 in 2013.
The number of farms with pigs was 1,468 in 2023, up from 1,293 (13.5%) in 2013. The average number of pigs on a farm was 1,191.
The border and southwest regions reported the highest number of pigs with 442,397 and 385,507 animals respectively.
In 2023, there were 17.1 million poultry recorded in Ireland, up 4% from 16.5 million in 2020.
There were 12.6 million table birds last year which accounted for 73.7% of all poultry.
The border region had the most poultry with 11.5 million animals, this accounted for 67.1% of all poultry.
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