The latest stats on the number of suckler herds/county, average number of cows/herd and other key suckler herd data has been made available by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).

The data was included in the 2026 Beef Calving Statistics and gives an overview of suckler farming in Ireland on a county-by-county basis.

The data also looks at some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) for suckler herds such as calving interval and average age at first calving.

The map below details the number of suckler herds/county in the Republic of Ireland in 2026:

Looking specifically at the numbers of suckler farmers per county, Galway and Mayo are well out in front.

Co. Galway has over 5,100 suckler farms and Mayo has over 4,500 suckler farms.

Combined, the two counties have over 9,600 suckler herds, which is over 23% of the total herds nationally.

The map below details the average herd size by county for the Republic of Ireland in 2026:

While counties Galway and Mayo may have the largest numbers of suckler farmers, average herd size in both counties is below the national average for both, at 14 and 12 cows/herd respectively.

Interestingly, the south-east has the largest average suckler herd sizes with Kilkenny leading the way at an average herd size of 25 cows, followed by Waterford at 24 cows/herd and Wexford at 22 cows/herd.

The ICBF data indicates that there are 41,274 suckler herds in Ireland in 2026 and the average number of suckler cows on these farms is 16.

Dairy vs suckler

The figures show the significant difference in dairy farms versus suckler farms in terms of scale, with approximately 100 cows being the average Irish dairy herd size currently versus 16 cows for the average suckler herd size.

Looking at trends over the past decade, the average Irish dairy herd size has continued to expand as the number of dairy herds has fallen.

This trend is expected to continue into the future but while the number of suckler herds is declining, average Irish suckler herd size is not really expanding in any significant way.

Despite being generally smaller in scale than dairy, Irish suckler herds run a range of dynamic systems with some focusing on calving ease and others primarily focused on calf muscle and weanling production.

Many small-scale suckler farms are managing to generate impressive returns on their weanling sales.

As the supply of suckler-bred weanlings declined, demand is remaining high and the prices being paid for these weanlings is also remaining high.