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Farm Structure Survey 2013

Livestock

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There was a total of 6.9 million cattle on 111,300 farms in Ireland, giving an average herd size of 62 cattle.
Over 60% of the cattle were located in 52,700 farms in the SE region, where the average herd size was 81 cattle.
The remaining 38.0% of cattle located in the BMW region had a smaller average herd size of 45 cattle.
There were 1.163 million Dairy cows, of which almost 80% were in the SE region.

There was a total of 4.9 million sheep in Ireland in 2013 held on 36,600 farms, with an average flock size of 135 sheep per farm.
While the overall number of sheep in the SE region (2.2 million) was less than in the BMW region (2.75 million), the average flock size was almost 50% larger, at 170 sheep and 116 sheep respectively.
The highest number of sheep was in the West with just over 1.3 million, representing more than one quarter of the total national flock (26.5%)

In 2013 there were 1.552 million pigs on 1,300 farms in Ireland, an average of 1,194 pigs per farm.
More than one quarter of all pigs (409,200) were located in the Border region.
The largest average number of pigs per farm was in the Midlands (2,869).
There was over 10 million poultry in Ireland in 2013, 68.7% of which were in the BMW region. Average flock size in the BMW (1,740 birds per farm) was over double that in the SE region (774 birds per farm), with a particular concentration in the Border region (4,433 birds per farm).
Both pig and poultry farming continued to be an intensive activity carried out by a small number of specialised producers.

Table 3.1 Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region and county 2013

Table 3.2 Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region 2013

Table 3.3 Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2013

Table 3.4 Sheep: Number of farms and number of animals in each region 2013

Table 3.5 Other Sheep & goats: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2013

Table 3.6 Pigs: Number of farms and number of animals in each region 2013

Table 3.7 Poultry: Number of farms and number of birds in each region 2013

Table 3.8 Number of farms with livestock classified by livestock size unit (LSU) and type of farm 2013

Table 3.9 Number of farms with livestock classified by farm size (AAU) and livestock size unit (LSU) 2013

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Table 3.1 Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region and county - 2013
'000
Region	Cattle kept for breeding purposes
	Total Cattle		Bulls		Cows
	Total Cattle		Bulls		Dairy¹		Other
	farms	animals	farms	animals	farms	animals	farms	animals

State	111.3	6,902.6	32.2	41.4	18.1	1,163.2	77.2	1,150.3

Border, Midland and Western	58.6	2,625.1	14.5	17.6	4.2	234.4	43.6	600.5

Border	21.5	894.7	5.2	6.2	2.0	103.4	16.3	202.8
Midland	11.2	802.3	3.4	4.5	1.3	81.5	7.4	146.1
West	25.9	928.2	5.9	6.9	1.0	49.5	19.9	251.6

Southern and Eastern	52.7	4,277.5	17.7	23.8	14.0	928.8	33.6	549.8

Mid-East and Dublin	7.3	579.0	2.2	3.1	1.0	79.5	4.6	92.8
Mid-West	14.6	1,008.5	4.9	6.3	3.1	184.3	9.9	159.2
South-East	12.8	1,312.9	4.7	6.4	3.8	269.9	8.1	158.9
South-West	18.1	1,377.1	5.9	8.0	6.1	395.2	10.9	138.9
¹Dairy cows are those kept principally to produce milk for human consumption

Table 3.2 Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2013
'000
Region	Other cattle
	3 years old and upwards				2 years old and under 3
	farms	total	males	females	farms	total	males	females
	farms	total	males	females	farms	total	males	females

State	27.9	85.8	39.6	46.2	72.0	682.5	348.6	333.9

Border, Midland and Western	13.6	37.9	17.1	20.8	36.4	283.3	133.1	150.2

Border	4.6	11.0	4.1	6.9	12.5	79.2	32.2	47.0
Midland	3.4	13.4	7.0	6.4	8.0	100.1	51.3	48.8
West	5.5	13.4	6.0	7.4	15.9	104.0	49.6	54.4

Southern and Eastern	14.3	47.9	22.5	25.4	35.6	399.3	215.5	183.7

Mid-East and Dublin	2.5	11.5	6.1	5.4	5.3	78.5	39.3	39.3
Mid-West	3.8	12.1	6.0	6.1	9.8	98.9	55.9	43.0
South-East	3.7	12.4	5.8	6.6	9.1	123.1	71.3	51.8
South-West	4.3	11.9	4.6	7.3	11.4	98.7	49.0	49.7

Table 3.3 Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2013
'000
Region	Other cattle
	1 year old and under 2				Under 1 year
	farms	total	males	females	farms	total	males	females
	farms	total	males	females	farms	total	males	females

State	95.6	1,811.0	872.7	938.3	93.0	1,968.5	959.2	1,009.3

Border, Midland and Western	49.4	692.7	331.2	361.6	49.2	758.7	376.0	382.7

Border	17.8	227.0	106.1	120.9	18.6	265.1	129.0	136.1
Midland	10.2	235.6	119.2	116.4	9.1	221.0	112.4	108.7
West	21.4	230.1	105.8	124.3	21.6	272.6	134.7	137.9

Southern and Eastern	46.2	1,118.2	541.5	576.7	43.8	1,209.8	583.2	626.5

Mid-East and Dublin	6.5	164.8	79.7	85.1	5.9	148.8	72.8	75.9
Mid-West	12.7	255.5	128.3	127.2	12.2	292.2	144.8	147.4
South-East	11.7	362.2	184.7	177.6	10.8	379.9	192.1	187.9
South-West	15.4	335.7	148.8	186.9	15.1	388.8	173.6	215.3

Table 3.4 Sheep: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2013
'000
Region	Total sheep		Sheep kept for breeding purposes
			Rams		Ewes
			Rams		2 years and over		Under 2 years
	farms	animals	farms	animals	farms	animals	farms	animals

State	36.6	4,942.2	30.2	86.2	33.9	2,043.3	29.5	520.8

Border, Midland and Western	23.7	2,749.9	19.5	49.0	21.9	1,140.5	19.1	286.0

Border	10.0	1,111.1	8.2	20.6	9.3	460.2	8.1	115.6
Midland	2.5	328.1	2.1	6.1	2.3	136.4	1.9	33.7
West	11.2	1,310.8	9.2	22.2	10.3	543.8	9.0	136.7

Southern and Eastern	12.9	2,192.3	10.7	37.2	12.0	902.8	10.4	234.8

Mid-East and Dublin	3.4	709.0	2.9	12.3	3.2	291.9	2.8	76.1
Mid-West	1.5	127.4	1.2	2.8	1.4	51.4	1.1	14.0
South-East	3.7	654.8	3.0	11.4	3.4	269.0	2.9	70.7
South-West	4.3	701.1	3.6	10.8	4.0	290.5	3.6	73.9

Table 3.5 Other Sheep & goats: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2013
'000
Region	Other sheep				Total goats
	1 year and over		Under 1 year
	1 year and over		Under 1 year
	farms	animals	farms	animals	farms	animals
State	16.3	94.4	34.1	2,197.6	1.2	10.2

Border, Midland and Western	10.2	52.8	22.0	1,221.7	0.6	5.3

Border	4.0	21.1	9.4	493.5	0.3	2.0
Midland	1.0	5.4	2.3	146.5	0.1	1.7
West	5.2	26.4	10.3	581.7	0.2	1.7

Southern and Eastern	6.0	41.6	12.1	975.9	0.5	4.9

Mid-East and Dublin	1.7	12.7	3.2	316.0	0.1	1.0
Mid-West	0.4	2.3	1.4	56.9	0.1	1.6
South-East	1.7	12.2	3.4	291.5	0.1	0.9
South-West	2.1	14.4	4.1	311.5	0.2	1.4

Table 3.8 Number of farms¹ with livestock classified by livestock size unit (LSU²) and type of farm - 2013
('000)
Farm type	Livestock Units (LSU)							Total	Average livestock unit size (LSU)
	Livestock Units (LSU)
	< 5	5 - < 10	10 - < 20	20 - < 30	30 - < 50	50 - < 100	>= 100
	< 5	5 - < 10	10 - < 20	20 - < 30	30 - < 50	50 - < 100	>= 100

Specialist tillage	0.5	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.0	1.8	21.5
Specialist dairying	-	-	0.1	0.4	1.6	5.5	8.0	15.6	119.9
Specialist beef production	9.3	11.9	18.2	12.2	13.3	10.6	3.3	78.8	30.8
Specialist sheep	2.9	3.5	3.8	1.9	1.7	1.0	0.3	15.0	20.1
Mixed grazing livestock	2.2	1.4	1.9	1.4	2.1	2.5	1.7	13.1	48.2
Mixed crops and livestock	0.1	0.2	0.4	0.4	0.6	0.7	0.3	2.6	52.0
Mixed field crops	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	23.5
Other	0.3	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.6	1.1	464.6 ³

Total	15.4	17.3	24.8	16.6	19.5	20.4	14.3	128.3	46.3
¹Only farms with livestock are included here.
2 See appendix 3 for further information on LSU.
³ This category includes specialist pig and poultry producers with significantly higher numbers of livestock per holding

Table 3.9 Number of farms¹ with livestock classified by farm size (AAU) and livestock size unit (LSU²) - 2013
('000)
LSU Class	Farm size (AAU) - hectares							Average farm size (ha)
	Farm size (AAU) - hectares
	< 10	10 - < 20	20 - < 30	30 - < 50	50 - < 100	> = 100	Total
	< 10	10 - < 20	20 - < 30	30 - < 50	50 - < 100	> = 100	Total

0 -< 5	8.6	4.9	1.0	0.6	0.2	0.1	15.4	12.2
5 -< 10	6.6	7.0	2.2	1.1	0.3	0.1	17.3	14.4
10 -< 20	4.3	10.7	5.6	3.2	0.8	0.1	24.8	20.9
20 -< 30	0.8	5.6	5.3	3.8	0.9	0.1	16.6	27.0
30 -< 50	0.3	2.8	6.3	7.6	2.2	0.4	19.5	35.4
50 -< 100	0.1	0.5	2.5	10.4	6.2	0.7	20.4	48.7
>= 100	0.2	0.1	0.2	2.3	8.7	2.9	14.3	80.0

Total	20.9	31.4	23.2	29.0	19.4	4.3	128.3	32.5
¹Only farms with livestock are included here.
² See Background Notes for further information on LSU.