Almost 2,600 cattle have been reported missing or stolen over the last two years, new figures from the Department of Agriculture show.

Just over 1,000 cattle have been reported either stolen or missing as of 21 October 2024, according to the Department’s data.

There are generally significantly more animals reported missing than stolen each year.

To date this year, 902 cattle have been reported missing while 141 have been reported stolen.

Age breakdown

Some 80 cattle, mostly over 30 months of age, were reported stolen from farms in Mayo in 2024 with another 40 in the same age category reported stolen in Monaghan.

Over 120 cattle have been reported missing from Cork this year, followed by 107 in Limerick and 100 in Laois.

Cattle over 30 months account for the majority of animals reported stolen or missing to the Department.

Last year, a total of 1,548 cattle were reported either stolen or missing.

Of this figure, 84 cattle were reported stolen with half of these animals disappearing from farms in counties Meath and Louth.

Farmers in these counties reported 42 cattle as stolen that year.

In both cases, the majority of the animals were between 12 and 24 months old.

Monaghan and Kerry were next highest on the list with nine cattle reported stolen each last year.

Of the 1,464 cattle reported missing in 2023, Limerick had the most with 242.

Meath was next with 220, followed by Louth with 174.

Limerick has been hit hard by cattle thefts in the last two years with 353 cattle reported missing or stolen in this time period.

Last year in the county, 69 of the animals reported missing were over 30 months old, 65 were between 18 and 30 months old, while another 56 were between six and 12 months old.

Majority

The majority (71) of cattle reported missing in Meath were between six and 12 months of age while another 61 were over 30 months.

There were also 52 cattle in Meath between the ages of 12 and 18 months reported missing last year.