New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the number of sheep passing through factories fell by 7.4% in the first eight months of 2024 when compared with last year.

The drop in factory throughput equates to a shortfall of over 150,000-head on the same timeframe in 2023 and a 9,000 decline in this year’s numbers in the month of August alone.

Cattle throughput in the eight months up to the end of August is estimated to equate to 1.2m head, which is an increase of over 7,000 heads or 0.6% on 2023, according to the CSO.

Cattle numbers

For the month of August 2024 itself, factories’ cattle numbers were back just under 11,000-head on 2023, a drop of 6.7% on the same month a year previous.

The CSO estimates that pig slaughterings were marginally up in the first eight months of this year, by 7,000-head on 2023’s equivalent.

This rise came despite a 5,000-pig decline in the month of August when compared with the previous August’s kill.