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The national goat herd recorded a sharp fall in numbers in 2016, with total numbers falling 1,988, or 20%, to 7,874. The figure was driven by a sharp fall in the number of herds with between one and five goats. This category of herd keepers close to halved, falling from 710 herds in 2015 to 357 in 2016. Outside of this there were 33 other herds who ceased farming goats in 2016, with the breakdown detailed in Table 1.
While the average herd size remains unchanged at 11 goats, the reduction in these smaller non-commercial herds is pushing an increasing percentage of the national herd into larger herds, with 24 commercial herds containing 61% of the total goat population.
As can be expected, the location of goats is also concentrated in counties with a mixture of these large herds and good numbers of smaller herds. Six counties were home to 59% of goats in 2016, with Galway recording the greatest concentration at 14% of total goat numbers, followed by Tipperary (12%), Cork (10%), Westmeath (9%), Longford (7%) and Clare (7%).
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