Figures extracted from the 2021 AIM Bovine Statistics Report shows that 3,400 herds exited cattle farming over the last five-year period. And it appears that herds with bovines reduced by approximately 6,000 over the last decade.
The statistics indicate that the total number of herds with cattle dropped below the 100,000 herds mark for the first time since the inaugural bovine statistics report was published this year. The reduction in herd numbers has occurred mostly in smaller-sized herds.
But growth in the national dairy herd over the last 10 years is underpinning an increase in the average herd size. In 2011 the average herd size across all production systems was 55.3 animals, but this has increased – rising to 58.1 animals in 2014, 62 animals in 2016, 63.8 animals in 2019 and 65.5 animals in 2021.
The overall size of the national herd, at 6,541,111 head, has grown by almost 12% since 2011.
Numbers have subsequently dropped, partly due to lower suckler births and higher live exports in certain years, before increasing marginally between 2020 and 2021. Figures have gone up over the last decade, but are still remain similar to peak numbers in the mid-1980s, before the introduction of milk quotas.
Read more about the AIM Bovine Statistics Report here.