Cereal production decreased by almost 21% in 2023, according to new figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Production of wheat, barley and oats decreased by 531,000t to over 2m tonnes last year.

Production of wheat fell by nearly 200,000t (28%), barley by over 280,000t (18%) and oats by almost 50,000t (21%).

The yield of oats dropped by 1.5t/ha (nearly 18%), while barley fell by 1.3t/ha (16%) and wheat decreased by 1.4t/ha (almost 13%).

Production of potatoes was also down, decreasing by some 12%, a 46,000t drop to 322,000t last year.

Potato yield decreased by almost 10%, from 43t/ha to 39t/ha.

In contrast, oilseed rape production was up 25% by nearly 20,000t to 97,000t in 2023.

The production of beans and peas also increased. It was up almost 24% - 65,700t to 81,300t - comparing last year with 2022.

Tillage area

Meanwhile, figures for 2023 show the area under cereals dropped by nearly 6%.

The area of cereals in Ireland decreased by 16,300ha to 269,400ha when compared with 2022.

The largest decrease observed was for winter barley, which was down by 20,800ha (28%).

While overall the area under cereals decreased in 2023, there was an increase of 16,900ha in spring barley (15%) and an increase of 4,200ha for spring oats (32%).

The area under potatoes fell by 300ha (3.3%) to 8,200ha in comparison with 2022.

The area under beans and peas rose by some 50% in 2023, up 5,400ha to 16,200ha.

The area of oilseed rape was up by 40% from 15,800ha in 2022 to 21,600ha.

Livestock slaughter

Further figures released by the CSO show that in the year to March 2024, the number of cattle slaughtered rose by 1.7% when compared with the same period in 2023.

However, when comparing March 2024 with the same month in 2023, analysis shows cattle slaughterings contracted by 7.4%.

Cattle slaughterings in the year to March 2024 are estimated to be above 483,000 head, an increase of more than 8,000 head.

The number of sheep slaughtered from January to March this year is 1.7% back on the same time period last year.

During the first three months of the year, sheep slaughterings decreased by approximately 13,000 head to just under 748,500 head.

The number of sheep slaughtered declined by 5.5% in March 2024 when compared with March 2023.

The number of pigs slaughtered in the year to March 2024 fell by 1.6% when compared with the same three months in 2023.

Pig slaughterings dropped by 8.2% in March 2024 when compared with the same month in 2023.

The number of pigs slaughtered is approximately just under 836,000 head for January to March 2024, down nearly 14,000 head on the same period in 2023.