Ireland’s 139,860 farmers have farmgate sales of approximately €7bn. They use €5bn of this to pay for fertiliser, diesel, feed and other inputs. That leaves them with €2bn gross value added. Here we show the farmgate sales for the different enterprises. We also show how the different enterprises are placed at individual county level. These maps show where enterprises are most concentrated. The first map shows there are more farmers in the west side of the country than in the east. It’s partly to do with land area – but also size of holding tends to be larger in the east.

We can see at a glance where sheep, cereals, suckler cows and dairy cows are concentrated. Each of these sectors has an important role.