Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 October 2017
486. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the strength of the national beef, dairy and pig herd and the sheep flock; the extent to which numbers have fluctuated over the past ten years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41955/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe national beef, dairy and pig herds, together with the national sheep flock make an enormous contribution to Ireland’s agri-food industry which in 2016 amounted to a total of €12.2 billion, an increase of over 56% since 2009.
One of the key indicators of the strength of the different sectors in Irish agriculture is the growth in exports over the years.
Since 2010, the value of Irish beef exports has increased from €1.57 billion to €2.38 billion, the value of dairy exports has increased from €2.27 billion to €3.82 billion, the value of pig meat exports has increased from €336 million to €615 million and the value of sheep meat exports has increased from €163 million to €240 million. This increase in the value of exports has been realised notwithstanding the challenges the different sectors have encountered in recent years, the most recent of which is of course Brexit.
The numbers of livestock in the different sectors over the last ten years have fluctuated from enterprise to enterprise. Within the last ten years, dairy cow numbers, based on dairy cows calved in each calendar year, have risen from a low of approximately 990,000 in 2008 to a high of approximately 1.3 million dairy cows in 2016, driven to a large extent by the abolition of quotas in 2015 following smaller increases in national quota prior to this.
The number of suckler cows, based on beef cows calved in each calendar year, has not fluctuated as widely as the number of dairy cows, with the highest number of beef cows in the last ten years recorded in 2012 at approximately 1.11 million falling to approximately 981,000 in 2014 with the most recent figures showing approximately 994,000 beef cows calving in 2016.
The size of the national sheep flock based on census returns over the last ten years has risen from a low of 3.07 million sheep in 2009 to a high of 3.91 million recorded in the 2016 census.
With regards to the size of the national pig herd, the method of data collected was changed in 2011, and since then numbers according to the pig census have risen from a low of approximately 1.35 million pigs in 2012 to a high of approximately 1.6 million pigs in 2016.
