The Rebel County came out on top in the dairy-cow charts in 2020 with 390,900 head, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which published its Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2021 this week.

The CSO’s annual publication reveals intriguing details of various aspects of Irish life including people and society; business and economy; environment and travel; and, most importantly for Agriland readers, agriculture and farming.

In the years leading up to and since the abolition of the milk quota in 2015, there has been a steady year-on-year increase in the number of dairy cows on Irish farms, according to the CSO.

This will, of course, be of no surprise to readers, but let’s look a little closer at some of the figures revealed by the CSO today (Friday, October 22).

In the period 2013-2020 there was a 34% increase in cow numbers. In 2020, the number of dairy cows stood at 1,567,700, marking an increase of 4.2% on 2019.

While Cork topped the chart, at the very opposite end of the scale is Leitrim with the smallest cow-number – just 1,900 head.

Second place goes to Tipperary, with 182,500 cows; third place goes to Limerick with 124,200.

Dairy
Number of dairy cows by county 2013-2020

And, taking fourth and fifth place, respectively, are Kerry with 103,500 and Kilkenny with 99,100.

Milking it

On the domestic milk intake side of things, an increase of 52.9% was recorded in the period from 2013-2020.

In 2020, the estimated domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was 8,293 million L, an increase of 3.8% on 2019.

Skimmed milk powder production increased from 49,500t in 2013 to 150,100t in 2020 representing a 203.2% increase.

In 2013, 152,100t of butter was produced which rose to 264,700t in 2020. This marked a 74.0% increase.