Slaughterings of cattle, sheep and pigs in July of this year were all down on the figures for the same month in 2021, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has shown.
The figures which were released today (Friday, August 26), indicate a drop in the total number of livestock slaughterings of 7.2% year-on-year, with the most significant fall in the sheep sector.
However, this was a trend largely isolated to the month of July. In the months January to June of this year, the figures for cattle, sheep and pig throughput were higher than they were in the same period of 2021.
Cattle
Cattle slaughterings in July 2022 were 148,000 head, this was 6,000 less than the figure for the same month the previous year, when 154,000 cattle were slaughtered.
So far, July was the only point in 2022 when cattle throughput dropped. In the months January to June, there were increases of at least 6,000 head, with the figure in April of this year up by 15%.
Sheep
The number of sheep slaughtered last month was 281,000 head, down 8.1% on July last year when the figure stood at 306,000.
Again, looking to the January to June period, the throughput figures for sheep were higher in each of these months than they were in 2021, except for in June when the numbers began to decrease.
255,000 sheep were slaughtered in June of last year, that number fell by 2,000 to 252,000 head this year, an indication of the trend that was set to continue into July.
Pigs
In relation to the pig sector, a similar trend to sheep can be seen. The throughput for July last year was 315,000 head. That figure fell by 15,000 or 7.2%to land on 290,000 in July of this year.
Within the January to June period, pig throughput figures were up every month on 2021’s recordings except for in June, when they fell by 5,000 head.