Ireland had 7,069,700 cattle in June 2026, up 164,800 or 2.4 percent on a year earlier, according to the Central Statistics Office's June livestock survey released on 29 September, Agriland reports.

"The number of dairy cows increased by 32,000 (+2.0%), bringing the total to 1,619,800," said Stephanie Kelleher, a statistician in the CSO's Agriculture Surveys Section. Cattle aged two years and over rose by 9.1 percent, while cattle aged one to two years fell slightly, by 0.2 percent. Other cows rose by 15,700, or 2.0 percent, and cattle under two years grew by 46,400, or 1.2 percent.

The mid-west region had the most cattle, at 1,403,000, and Cork was the leading county with 1,039,900. Cork alone had 384,900 dairy cows, more than either the northern and western region (193,000) or the eastern and midland region (291,300).

Sheep numbers rose by 46,700 (0.9 percent) to 5,145,200. Breeding sheep increased by 88,500 (3.4 percent), non-breeding sheep fell by 41,800 (1.7 percent), and rams rose by 8,700 (10.2 percent) to 93,900.

The pig herd grew 4.4 percent to 1,635,900. Breeding pigs rose by 3,000 to 138,900 and other pigs by 66,400 to 1,496,900; the only category to fall was pigs of 80 kg and over, down 34,200 (9.4 percent) to 330,100.

Photo: beamillion / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Source: Agriland