Number of Livestock 2009, added the number of hens 1 December 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, pigs and hens 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.
• The number of hens decreased from previous year by 1 per cent. At the beginning of December, their number was approx. 3.2 million.

Information on the number of sheep in year 2009 will be released on this site during the spring.