Dairy cattle herd surges in Laois by nearly 50%

Cattle numbers have increased in Laois by over 18,000 in the last seven years with almost all of that growth on dairy farms, according to official figures from the Central Statistics Office.

Figures also show that the number of dairy cows has increased by half in Laois since 2015 which is almost double the growth rate nationally.

The CSO website shows figures from between 2015 and 2021.

In 2015 there were nearly 243,000 cattle on Laois farms. The number in June 2021 was 26,120.

There were 52,200 dairy cows on Laois farms at the end of June 2021 when the annual heard count is carried out nationally.

It reveals that there were, 35,000 dairy cows being farmed in Laois in 2015. The number increased by over 4000 in the year to June 2016. Another big year of growth was 2019/20 when more than 4000 dairy cows were added to the county total.

Some 17,000 additional dairy cattle were added to Laois farms during the years measured. This represents a 47% rise since June 2015.

When compared to June 2020 the total number of cattle increased by 44,300 to 7,358,900 (+0.6%) to 7,358,900.

The CSO published its Crops and Livestock Survey June Final Results 2021 in late March.

The final results for June 2021 show that the total number of cattle increased by 44,300 (+0.6%) to 7,358,900 when compared to June 2020. The total number of dairy cows increased by 36,800 (+2.4%) while the total number of other cows decreased by 43,000 (-4.4%).

A regional analysis of the livestock numbers shows that the largest number of cattle (1,472,400) was in the Mid-West region, the largest number of sheep (1,510,800) was in the West region and the largest number of pigs (444,900) was in the Border region.

Providing further analysis of the cattle figures, Sophie Emerson said: "The total number of cattle 2 years and over has decreased by 80,400 (-10.1%) whereas the total number of cattle 1-2 years has increased by 103,800 (+5.8%).3”.