National herd lowest in 10 years

Marts: The national livestock herd has dropped to its lowest level in more than 10 years, following a landslide in animals over 24 months, although the drop in the national beef breeding herd has been less dramatic.

The CSO figures to the end of December 2003 shows total cattle population at 6.223 million head, the lowest since the early 90’s, while cattle population in the country peaked in 1997 at 6.882 million head.

However, as the CSO figures are based on the trend gleaned from a representative survey of livestock in the country rather than a census, differences between the CSO figures and the Department of Agriculture CMMS emerged last year and remain unexplained to-date.