Figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM’s) 2023 Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) report shows that the number of cattle in Ireland varies by over 1 million head within the course of a year a year.
Naturally enough, the number of cattle in the country will vary over the course of the year with calves being born and beef cattle being slaughtered however the 2023 AIM report shows that variation within a year exceeds one million head.
To put this into context, at the start of January, the report notes the number of cattle in Ireland was 6.5 million cattle (6,509,974 cattle).
By the start of May, the number of cattle in the country had increased to over 7.4 million cattle (7,424,673).
By the end of December, the number of cattle in the country was just over 6.4 million head (6,403,278), indicating a drop in the cattle population of over one million head (1,021,395 cattle) since early May.
Looking at statistics on calf births and the largest number of calves are born in February with just over 663,000 calves born in February 2023.
The month with the lowest number of calf births was December just over 36,000 calves born in that month.
Looking at cattle disposal figures and a total of 1.78 million cattle were slaughtered at DAFM-approved factories in 2023.
Just over 88,700 cattle were slaughtered at Local Authority-approved slaughter plants and live exports last year totalled 324,220 head.
On-farm deaths in 2023 totalled 265,620 head and the number of stillborn calves was 34,170, according to the report.