Over 74,000 farms were classified as beef specialists last year, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
As part of the Census of Agriculture 2020, the CSO said that the total Agricultural Area Utilised (AAU) on farms in Ireland has been over 4.5 million hectares since 2010.
Last year, Dublin, Waterford and Kilkenny had the highest average AAU.
The smallest average AAU values were recorded in Monaghan, Mayo and Leitrim.
Western and border counties had lower AAU than the south, midlands and east of the country.
County Average Agricultural Area Utilised on farms Carlow 40.7ha Cavan 26.2ha Clare 32.1ha Cork 38.7ha Donegal 27.4ha Dublin 47.3ha Galway 26.5ha Kerry 35.2ha Kildare 44.8ha Kilkenny 45.7ha Laois 38ha Leitrim 25.5ha Limerick 36.2ha Longford 28.3ha Louth 37.8ha Mayo 23.4ha Meath 43.8ha Monaghan 23.2ha Offaly 37.6ha Roscommon 27.7ha Sligo 27.1ha Tipperary 42.2ha Waterford 47ha Westmeath 38.1ha Wexford 41.8haa Wicklow 42ha
The total number of farms between 1991 and 2020 fell by 3.4% from 170,578 to 135,037.
In the decade from 2010 to 2020, there was a loss of 4,823 farms. The average farm size in 1991 was 26ha.
The CSO said in 2020, the average farm size had increased by 2.2% to 33.4ha.
Specialist farms
Of the 135,037 farms in Ireland last year, 74,159 enterprises were classified by the CSO as specialist beef production.
There were 17,435 farms specialising in sheep 15,319 in dairying and 4,567 in tillage.
11,516 farms were growing mixed field crops, 8,508 were classed as mixed grazing livestock and 1,759 were a mixture of crops and livestock.
Over one in five farms in Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick and Tipperary were classified as specialist dairying. 57.5% of the specialist dairy farms were over 50ha.
Over 45% of specialist beef and sheep farms were less than 20ha in size, while one sixth of specialised tillage enterprises were over 100ha.
The prevalence of specialist beef production varied from 27.5% of farms in Wicklow to 81.1% in Clare.
Over half of farms in 14 counties were classified as having a sole beef focus.
Specialist sheep farms were prominent in the border, west, southwest and mid-east regions.
Donegal, Wicklow, Mayo and Kerry recorded over 20% of farms as specialising in sheep.
County Dairy Beef Sheep Carlow 9.2% 34.7% 15.7% Cavan 10.8% 68.3% 7.9% Clare 7.7% 81.1% 1.5% Cork 27.7% 42.7% 6% Donegal 2% 32.8% 44.9% Dublin 3.6% 28.5% 16.5% Galway 3.4% 66.5% 12% Kerry 16.4% 47.5% 20.4% Kildare 6% 42.7% 11.7% Kilkenny 23.5% 45.1% 4.8% Laois 13% 57.1% 3.4% Leitrim 0.9% 65.2% 19% Limerick 23.5% 61.4% 1.1% Longford 5.1% 78.6% 4.2% Louth 9.1% 40% 12.5% Mayo 2.2% 57.5% 24.2% Meath 10.8% 50% 8.5% Monaghan 12% 67.1% 4.3% Offaly 9.6% 65.8% 4.4% Roscommon 1.5% 71.7% 9.7% Sligo 2.5% 64.4% 18% Tipperary 21.5% 53.7% 3.7% Waterford 26.5% 39.7% 6.5% Westmeath 7.8% 68.2% 6% Wexford 17.1% 29% 9% Wicklow 8.6% 27.5% 30.1%