Ireland’s sheep flock increased by 2% in 2019 on 2018 levels, the latest sheep census figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine show.
Figures from the department reveal that 3.81 million sheep were kept in the country at the end of December 2019 – which represents an increase of 76,000 head when compared to the 2018 figure.
Census forms were sent to 46,124 registered flock-keepers. Of that number, 40,611 forms were returned, which represented a response rate of 88%.
Of those who responded, 5,673 said that they kept no sheep in December 2019, with 723 of this number indicating that they don’t intend to return to sheep farming in the near future.
Of the 3.8 million sheep recorded to be in Ireland as of December 31, 2019, 2.57 million of those were breeding sheep over 12 months-of-age.
The average number of sheep per flock was 109, which is an increase in the average flock number in 2018 of 106.
24,015 or 69% of flocks contain sheep numbers below the average flock size, which is the same percentage as in December 2018.
County-by-county breakdown of sheep numbers
If we take a look at the county-by-county breakdown of the total number of sheep, we can see that Donegal leads the way with a total number of 526,709.
The two counties with the next largest population of sheep are Mayo and Galway with 431,470 and 419,157 respectively.
Making up the top five number of counties with the largest population of sheep are Kerry and Wicklow with 327,901 and 232,300 respectively.
The counties with the lowest number of sheep are Limerick and Dublin with 20,661 and 24,800 respectively.
County-by-county breakdown of the number of breeding ewes over 12 months-of-age
The number of breeding sheep over 12 months-of-age as of December 31, 2019, in Ireland, amounted to 2.57 million, which is an increase of 11,000 on the 2018 figure.
Again, if we take a look at the county-by-county figures, we can see that Donegal tops the list in terms of the largest number of breeding ewes over 12 months-of-age at 354,058 as of December 2019.
It is followed by Mayo (310,069) and Galway (277,951). Kerry had the next greatest number (243,025), while Wicklow came fifth in the list at 152,313.
The two counties with the lowest number of breeding ewes over 12 months-of-age were Limerick (13,079) and Clare (17,443).
