Number of Livestock 2009

Number of livestock on 1 April 2009 (pigs, poultry, horses), 1 May 2009 (cattle) and 1 June 2009 (goats)

• The number of pigs, poultry and farm horses declined, while the number of cattle saw slight year-on-year growth.
• There were about 1.38 million pigs on 2,270 farms. The number of pigs declined by around 7 per cent and the number of pig farms by about 10 per cent.
• Last year, the lowest number of poultry was recorded since the statistical period began in the 1990s. There were a total of about 9.37 million head of poultry on 1,360 farms.
• At the beginning of May, cattle totalled 918,270, an increase of slightly under half a per cent on the previous year.
• There were slightly more dairy cows than in the previous year, to a total of 290,040. The rate of decline in the number of dairy farms slowed down compared with the previous year. Their number decreased by 6 per cent. The average herd size grew to 23.2 cows.

Number of cattle and pigs, 1 December 2009

• In December, the number of cattle saw a slight rise for the second consecutive year.
• The number of suckler cows rose by 7 per cent to 52,540 while the number of dairy cows declined by a per cent to 285,830.
• Last December, there were about 3 per cent fewer pigs than a year earlier.
• The rate of decline in the number of sows accelerated last year – the number of sows decreased by almost 7 per cent during the year.

Information on the number of hens at 1 December 2009 will be published on 26 February, and information on the number of sheep will be released on this site during the spring.