Suckler cow numbers are continuing to fall, with the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) data showing a fall of almost 3% or 27,000 head on last year.

The data separates cows into dairy cows and other cattle, with the latter category predominately made up of suckler cows.

As of June 2022, there was 913,200 other cows and 1.627m dairy cows in Ireland.

The number of dairy cows in Ireland is up by 1.4%, an extra 22,000 head, on the same period last year. Bull numbers fell by 4.2%, with the number of bulls falling to 48,300.

Including all other cattle, heifers, bullocks and bulls, there was 7.396m cattle in Ireland as of June, a 0.5% increase year on year.

Sheep numbers were up by 6.4% year on year by 358,2000 head to 5.96m.

Ewe numbers were up by 5.3% to over 3m head, while ram numbers fell by 1.7% to 83,500 head.

Crop area up

As reported by the Irish Farmers Journal in May, the area under cereals increased by 3.3% on last year. Including crops such as maize, oilseed rape and potatoes, the area increased by around 19,000ha or over 6% all in.

The CSO data shows that the area under cereals increased by 9,000ha to 285,400ha. However, the potato area is down by 8.2%.