The Census of Agriculture 2020 preliminary results published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) this week show that Co. Cork has the most agricultural land followed by Co. Galway and Co. Tipperary.
Counties with Agricultural Area Utilised – AAU (excluding commonage) – over 250,000ha:
- Cork 529,666ha;
- Galway 336,401ha;
- Tipperary 312,356ha;
- Kerry 288,624ha;
- Mayo 279,319ha;
- Donegal 256,468ha.
AAU is the combined area under crops, silage, hay, pasture and rough grazing land in use (including fallow land). Areas under roads, tracks, water, bog, marsh, rocks, unused rough grazing land, buildings, etc. are excluded.
According to the Census of Agriculture 2020, counties Mayo, Donegal, Galway, Kerry and Wicklow had considerably more commonage than the other counties in 2020, accounting for 77.7% (327,460ha) of commonage in the state.
The area of other crops, fruit and horticulture has fluctuated since 1991 and there has been a 15.2% increase since 2010; there are 21,505 farms and 92,208ha of land in use in 2020.
Grassland and rough grazing
Most recent statistics on 2020 indicate that 82.1% of AAU is under grassland (silage, hay and pasture), slightly less than 10 years ago (82.7%).
The distribution by county of AAU and grassland broadly coincides meaning that counties with the largest agricultural areas also have the largest grassland areas.
Counties Cork, Galway, Tipperary, Kerry, and Mayo all had grassland greater than 200,000ha.
Over a 30-year period the rough grazing area has declined, reaching 451,537ha of land in use mostly in Co. Donegal (81,462ha), Co. Kerry (78,613ha), Co. Mayo (50,560ha) and Co. Galway (50,366ha).
Cereal production in Census of Agriculture
The total number of farms producing cereals has declined since 1991, falling by 59.4% from 23,183 farms to 9,401 in 2020.
Accordingly, the total production area has declined by 11.9% leaving an area of 265,592 in 2020 of which over half is found in counties Wexford, Cork, Meath and Kildare.
The mid-east and Dublin region, counties Meath, Kildare, Dublin and Louth, had the largest areas of wheat production in 2020 accounting for 53.8%. Since 2010, the production area has decreased by 39.6% to 46,970ha compared to approximately 78,000ha in 2010.
The area of oats increased by 28.9% over the past 10 years to 25,408ha which were predominantly in counties Wexford, Meath, Kildare, Tipperary and Cork, together accounting for approximately 55% of the oats grown in the state in 2020.
The same counties also had the biggest production area of barley, each of them having over 14,000ha in 2020, together accounting for almost 60% of the entire barley grown in the state.
The area of barley is currently at 193,186ha, similar to 1991.