The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that over 38,500 sheep and goat census forms have been returned by farmers.
A DAFM spokesperson told Agriland that of the 37,678 sheep returns received by last Wednesday (February 15), 15,370 were made online and 22,308 returns were sent by post.
Of the 869 goat returns received, the department said that 552 were returned online, with 317 made on paper.
In December, the department issued sheep and goat census forms to 48,000 farmers.
Similar to previous years, the department selected December 31 as the 2022 census date.
A deadline of January 31 applied for farmers opting to return their census forms by post, while an extended deadline of February 14 applied to online returns only.
DAFM
According to the department, 38,547 sheep and goat census returns were made by farmers by February 15.
Donegal had the highest number of sheep returns at 6,370, followed by Mayo with 5,158 and Galway on 4,409.
Cork was the county with the highest number of goat returns with 111.
The following table provides a county-by-county breakdown of sheep and goat census returns made by February 15, 2023:
County Goat census Sheep census Carlow 10 727 Cavan 23 1,074 Clare 35 712 Cork 111 1,852 Donegal 65 6,370 Dublin 14 208 Galway 62 4,409 Kerry 62 2,569 Kildare 24 722 Kilkenny 16 507 Laois 16 449 Leitrim 41 1,230 Limerick 21 258 Longford 20 508 Louth 14 399 Mayo 77 5,158 Meath 26 1,076 Monaghan 9 620 Offaly 11 624 Roscommon 36 1,895 Sligo 39 1,711 Tipperary 35 987 Waterford 31 395 Westmeath 17 802 Wexford 30 1,115 Wicklow 24 1,301 TOTAL 869 37,678
Although the final date for sheep and goat census information to be submitted has now passed, the department is still advising keepers to return their census data as soon as possible.
The online census portal will remain open for a number of months and paper returns can continue to be posted to the address provided on the census forms.
“Completion and submission of the annual census is a legal requirement and a census return must be submitted even if there were no sheep present on the holding on census night,” a DAFM spokesperson said.
The submission of a completed census is an eligibility requirement for certain DAFM schemes with late returns possibly resulting in penalties or ineligibility for some schemes.
“Compliance with the requirement to submit an annual census will form part of animal identification inspections to be undertaken by DAFM in the coming months.
“Non-compliance with animal identification rules may result in the issuing of a fixed penalty notice (FPN), with the potential for court proceeding where this is not paid,” the DAFM spokesperson added.