The number of sheep slaughtered in January increased by 10.8% compared to the same month in 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The data published today (Monday, February 27) on livestock slaughterings shows that 251,300 sheep were processed in the first month of the year.
This is up from the 226,900 sheep which were slaughtered in January 2022.
According to the CSO, almost 3.2 million sheep were processed last year, which was an increase on the 2.97 million slaughtered in 2021.
An analysis of the data for January 2023 compared with January 2022 shows that cattle slaughterings grew by 6.7%.
Last month, there were 153,500 cattle processed, which is up from 143,900 in January 2022.
The CSO also noted that there was an increase of 0.2% in the number of pigs slaughtered in January 2023.
296,400 pigs were processed in the first month of 2023, compared to 295,900 in January 2022.
Meanwhile, figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) have confirmed that 163,443 cattle were slaughtered in Ireland within one week of being sold at a mart in 2022.
In January 2023, 12,582 cattle were slaughtered at an approved site in Ireland within a week of being purchased at a mart.
The figures include cattle slaughtered at both DAFM-approved factories and local authority-approved abattoirs, but do not include the cattle that were slaughtered outside the Republic of Ireland (i.e. in Northern Ireland).
Over 1.8 million cattle were sold at marts in the Republic of Ireland in 2022. This figure is over 91,000 cattle ahead of the number of cattle sold at marts in 2021.