Sheep industry stakeholders who have been closely following the official Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) sheep kill data will have noticed a recent anomaly in the official cull ewe kill figures.

The official 2026 DAFM sheep kill data has shown the cull ewe and ram kill this year to have increased by 50% or almost 81,000 head.

Agriland recently asked DAFM to explain the anomaly in the cull ewe kill figures.

It said that its sheep kill figures are based on weekly throughput figures at establishments (factories) under department supervision.

This is similar to the beef kill figures which illustrate kill numbers at DAFM-approved factories but not the smaller, local authority-approved outlets.

DAFM explained: "Following the transfer of former local authority (LA) [sheep slaughter] plants to department supervision, the department now includes some of those [former LA plants] in its weekly reported figures."

"The change of figures year on year referred to is predominantly accounted for by the new weekly reported figures," the DAFM statement said.

So essentially, while the official kill figure data shows that the cull ewe kill has increased by 80,000 head, the reality is that kill numbers are similar to last year, but additional processing outlets are now being accounted in the figures.

The table below details the DAFM sheep kill data as of Sunday, October 17:

Looking at the above data, the hogget kill this year was down 8% or 60,000 head while the spring lamb kill to date this year remains on par with last year.

The cull ewe kill figures are up by almost 81,000 head (as explained above).