The value of cattle production fell by a total of €104.4 million – or 4.6% – in 2019, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today, Thursday, March 5.

The CSO’s “second estimate of agricultural operating surplus in 2019” shows an annual increase of €195.9 million – an increase of 6.9% – up from approximately €2.9 billion in 2018 to just over €3 billion in 2019.

The report noted that while some sectors of agriculture performed well, others experienced a difficult year.

The CSO figures indicate that pig producers experienced a very good year, with the value of their output up by €84.4 million (+18.4%).

A return to more typical weather in 2019 resulted in a 13.7% fall in the volume of feed stuffs consumed by Irish farmers.

Overall, intermediate consumption costs fell by €218.5 million – or 3.6% in 2019.

A statement from the CSO noted that the figures are preliminary estimates which are provisional and based on the latest available data.

Concluding, the CSO statement outlined that the figures are subject to change once the complete set of data for the full year becomes available.

Updated figures for 2019 will be published in the final estimate in June 2020.