Over 1.8 million cattle were sold through Irish livestock marts in 2023, a slight increase of just over 2,000 head on the number of cattle sold at the mart in 2022.
Latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) show 1,817,616 head of cattle were sold at marts in 2023, while 95,322 head of cattle returned home unsold from the mart in 2023.
While the number of cattle sold at the mart increased slightly in 2023, the number of cattle being sold privately fell in 2023.
The table below gives an overview of the number of cattle sold and returned home by provence and by month in 2023:
Connaught Connaught Leinster Leinster Munster Munster Ulster Ulster Total Total Sold Returned home Sold Returned
homeSold Returned
homeSold Returned
homeSold Returned
homeJanuary 18734 710 23980 755 45569 839 11142 399 99,425 2,703 February 34926 1837 37155 1553 82760 1993 17078 751 171,919 6,134 March 36429 2158 48964 1850 122603 3499 20354 914 228,350 8,421 April 38591 2837 50161 2401 117814 3652 21966 1171 228,532 10,061 May 26932 2302 38059 2209 78240 2825 14460 933 157,691 8,269 June 13058 1358 22806 1460 40386 1736 7463 700 83,713 5,254 July 14000 1565 23459 1697 43004 2209 8615 717 89,078 6,188 August 18831 1777 25217 1644 42936 2207 8882 784 95,866 6,412 September 44653 3489 40191 2370 76803 2971 18590 1284 180,237 10,114 October 63017 6173 58410 3798 100525 5128 23820 1634 245,772 16,733 November 41881 3530 38990 2376 64080 3104 16368 1284 161,319 10,294 December 15832 1497 19041 1176 32774 1552 8067 514 75,714 4,739 Total 366,884 29,233 426,433 23,289 847,494 31,715 176,805 11,085 1,817,616 95,322 Total 396,117 449,722 879,209 187,890 1,912,938
DAFM figures show farm-to-farm cattle movements in 2023 totalled 1,391,146 head, a drop of almost 20,800 head on the number of cattle sold from farm-to-farm in 2022.
The largest number of cattle were sold at Irish marts in October of 2023 at over 245,000 head followed by March and April with over 228,000 head sold at the mart in each of these months.
As the table above indicates, October also had the largest volume of cattle returning home from the marts unsold with over 16,000 cattle going through mart rings unsold that month.