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Farm Structure Survey 2016

Livestock

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There was a total of 7.2 million cattle on 109,400 farms in Ireland, giving an average herd size of 66 cattle.
Over 60% of the cattle were located on 52,000 farms in the SE region, where the average herd size was 87 cattle.
Farms located in the BMW region had a smaller average herd size of 47 cattle.
There were 1.4 million Dairy cows, of which almost 80% were in the SE region.

There was a total of 5.1 million sheep in Ireland in 2016 held on 36,800 farms, an average flock size of 140 sheep per farm.
While the overall number of sheep in the SE region (2.3 million) was less than in the BMW region (2.9 million), the average flock size was over 50% larger, 182 sheep compared to 118 sheep.
The highest number of sheep was in the West with just over 1.4 million, representing more than one quarter of the total national flock (27.3%).

In 2016 there were 1.6 million pigs on 1,300 farms in Ireland, an average of 1,234 pigs per farm.
Almost one third of all pigs (481,900) were located in the Border region.
The largest average number of pigs per farm was in the Midlands (2,833).
There was over 11 million poultry in Ireland in 2016, the vast majority of which (71.6%), were in the BMW region. Average flock size in the BMW (1,760 birds per farm) was over double that in the SE region (681 birds per farm), with a particular concentration in the Border region (4,720 birds per farm).
Both pig and poultry farming continued to be an intensive activity carried out by a small number of specialised producers.

Table 4.6 was updated on the 1st of March 2019 to correct farm type values.

Table 4.1 Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region and county - 2016

Table 4.1 (cont'd) Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2016

Table 4.2 Sheep: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2016

Table 4.3 Other Sheep & goats: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2016

Table 4.4 Pigs: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2016

Table 4.5 Poultry: Number of farms and number of birds in each region - 2016

Table 4.6 Number of farms with livestock classified by livestock size unit (LSU) and type of farm 2016

Table 4.7 Number of farms with livestock classified by farm size (AAU) and livestock size unit (LSU) - 2016

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Table 4.1 Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region and county - 2016
'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	109.4	7,222.1	21.0	25.0	18.3	1,398.1	72.9	1,103.7

Border, Midland and Western	57.4	2,706.1	9.5	10.8	4.3	285.5	41.5	589.6
Border	21.1	907.7	3.3	3.7	2.0	121.4	15.6	197.1
Midland	11.1	842.8	2.3	2.8	1.3	103.2	7.1	141.4
West	25.3	955.5	3.9	4.3	1.0	60.9	18.8	251.2

Southern and Eastern	52.0	4,516.1	11.5	14.2	14.0	1,112.5	31.3	514.1
Mid-East and Dublin	7.2	609.6	1.5	1.8	1.1	97.3	4.4	89.0
Mid-West	14.4	1,055.0	3.2	3.9	3.0	213.0	9.3	150.0
South-East	12.6	1,398.3	3.0	3.8	3.9	337.6	7.4	144.1
South-West	17.7	1,453.2	3.7	4.7	6.1	464.7	10.1	131.0
¹Dairy cows are those kept principally to produce milk for human consumption

Table 4.1(cont'd) Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2016
'000
Region	Other cattle
	3 years old and upwards				2 years old and under 3
	farms	animals	males	females	farms	animals	males	females
State	29.8	79.0	41.4	37.6	66.3	637.2	350.3	286.8

Border, Midland and Western	14.3	34.4	17.6	16.7	33.2	263.6	129.0	134.5
Border	5.1	11.2	5.1	6.1	11.3	72.7	30.9	41.8
Midland	3.3	10.6	6.0	4.7	7.5	93.6	50.0	43.5
West	5.8	12.5	6.5	6.0	14.4	97.3	48.1	49.2

Southern and Eastern	15.5	44.6	23.8	20.8	33.0	373.6	221.3	152.3
Mid-East and Dublin	2.3	9.1	5.3	3.8	4.9	75.5	41.6	33.8
Mid-West	4.2	12.1	6.8	5.3	9.1	94.1	56.7	37.4
South-East	4.0	10.7	5.6	5.1	8.4	113.7	72.4	41.3
South-West	4.9	12.8	6.1	6.7	10.7	90.4	50.6	39.8

Table 4.1(cont'd) Cattle: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2016
'000
Region	Other cattle
	1 year old and under 2				Under 1 year
	farms	animals	males	females	farms	animals	males	females
State	93.3	1,853.4	872.7	980.7	92.1	2,125.7	1,045.3	1,080.4

Border, Midland and Western	48.0	713.0	333.6	379.4	48.8	809.2	404.5	404.7
Border	17.2	226.5	102.5	124.0	18.3	275.2	135.1	140.1
Midland	10.1	246.0	119.8	126.2	9.2	245.2	124.8	120.4
West	20.8	240.5	111.3	129.2	21.3	288.8	144.5	144.3

Southern and Eastern	45.2	1,140.5	539.1	601.3	43.4	1,316.5	640.9	675.7
Mid-East and Dublin	6.4	171.6	82.7	88.9	5.9	165.4	82.2	83.2
Mid-West	12.4	263.8	130.7	133.1	12.0	318.2	162.0	156.2
South-East	11.4	373.9	184.3	189.6	10.7	414.5	206.7	207.8
South-West	15.0	331.2	141.5	189.7	14.7	418.5	190.0	228.5

Table 4.2 Sheep: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2016
'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	36.8	5,140.4	30.4	77.4	36.0	2,008.9	30.8	482.3

Border, Midland and Western	24.3	2,863.6	20.0	44.4	24.0	1,095.1	20.5	262.9
Border	10.4	1,130.6	8.5	18.0	10.3	441.6	8.6	106.0
Midland	2.5	331.7	2.1	4.4	2.4	122.4	2.1	29.4
West	11.4	1,401.3	9.3	22.0	11.2	531.1	9.8	127.5

Southern and Eastern	12.5	2,276.8	10.4	33.0	11.9	913.8	10.3	219.4
Mid-East and Dublin	3.3	752.6	2.8	11.0	3.1	304.6	2.7	73.1
Mid-West	1.4	123.8	1.1	3.0	1.3	52.0	1.0	12.5
South-East	3.5	666.2	2.8	9.0	3.2	271.3	2.8	65.1
South-West	4.3	734.2	3.6	10.0	4.2	285.8	3.8	68.6

Table 4.3 Other Sheep & goats: Number of farms and number of animals in each region - 2016
'000
Region	Other Sheep		Goats
	Other Sheep		Goats
	farms	animals	farms	animals
State	34.8	2,571.9	1.0	9.2

Border, Midland and Western	22.6	1,461.2	0.6	4.5
Border	9.8	564.9	0.2	1.8
Midland	2.3	175.5	0.1	1.3
West	10.5	720.7	0.2	1.4

Southern and Eastern	12.2	1,110.7	0.5	4.7
Mid-East and Dublin	3.3	363.9	0.1	1.0
Mid-West	1.4	56.3	0.1	1.3
South-East	3.4	320.8	0.1	1.0
South-West	4.1	369.8	0.2	1.4

Table 4.6 Number of farms¹ with livestock classified by livestock size unit (LSU²) and type of farm - 2016
'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	0.2	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	1.6	23.0
Specialist dairying	.	.	0.1	0.4	1.3	5.0	9.3	16.1	133.1
Specialist beef production	8.8	11.5	17.9	12.3	13.6	10.8	3.6	78.3	31.7
Specialist sheep	3.1	3.5	3.8	1.8	1.7	1.0	0.2	15.1	19.6
Mixed grazing livestock	1.7	1.2	1.8	1.4	1.9	2.1	1.5	11.6	48.9
Mixed crops and livestock	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.3	0.5	0.5	0.3	2.1	57.8
Mixed field crops	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.6	10.3
Other	0.4	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.6	1.2	451.3 ³

Total	14.9	16.7	24.3	16.3	19.1	19.7	15.6	126.6	48.9
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 4.7 Number of farms¹ with livestock classified by farm size (AAU) and livestock size unit (LSU²) - 2016
'000
LSU Class	Farm size (AAU) - hectares							Average farm size (ha)
LSU Class	< 10	10 - < 20	20 - < 30	30 - < 50	50 - < 100	> = 100	Total	Average farm size (ha)
0 -< 5	8.9	4.2	1.0	0.5	0.3	0.1	14.9	12.1
5 -< 10	6.7	6.5	2.1	1.1	0.2	0.0	16.7	14.9
10 -< 20	4.6	10.8	5.2	2.9	0.8	0.1	24.3	20.1
20 -< 30	0.8	5.9	5.3	3.3	0.9	0.1	16.3	26.1
30 -< 50	0.3	3.1	6.6	7.1	1.9	0.3	19.1	34.0
50 -< 100	0.1	0.5	2.8	10.3	5.5	0.6	19.7	47.4
>= 100	0.2	0.1	0.2	2.5	9.5	3.2	15.6	80.4

Total	21.5	31.0	23.1	27.6	19.0	4.5	126.6	32.4
¹Only farms with livestock are included here.
² See Background Notes for further information on LSU.