Eurostat says Ireland Southern NUTS2 region No 1 in Europe for cattle
Beef and dairy farmers have taken the Ireland Southern NUTS2 region to No 1 in Europe.
The latest Eurostat figures confirm that it has more cattle than any other region in the EU-28.
The region made up of Carlow, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, and Wexford is also confirmed as the EU’s second most productive dairy region.
It produces 5.4 million tonnes of milk, surpassed only by 5.6m tonnes in the Brittany region of France. Next best is the Lombardy region in Northern Italy with 4.9m tonnes.
Southern Ireland is one of the 281 regions in which the EU is divided for administration and statistical purposes.
It is one of 14 regions that contributed 29% of the EU-28’s milk production in 2017. It has 3.6m, or 4% of the EU’s 88.8m cattle.
When it comes to specialising in cattle, Ireland’s Northern and Western and Eastern & Midland regions also get in on the act.
Along with Southern Ireland, they are among 12 EU regions with more than a million cattle.
Six of these are in France.
Ireland’s Northern & Western region, comprising Cavan, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Monaghan, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo has 1.9m cattle.
Ireland’s Eastern & Midland region comprises Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, and Wicklow, and it has nearly 1.5m cattle.
Surprisingly, Ireland also figures in the top rank for cereals, being one of the regions where barley is the most commonly grown cereal, along with central and northern Finland and Sweden; several parts of Spain, the Greek islands and Cyprus; Northern Ireland, and Scotland.
Despite punching above its weight in agriculture, Ireland does not include one of the 64 regions across the EU where the average standard output per farm was at least five times as high as the EU-28 average in 2017 (at least €174,000).
These regions were located mainly in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the UK, France and Czechia.
In 15 of these regions, the average farm size is at least 10 times as high as the EU-28 average.
The EU region with the highest standard output per farm (€680,000, nearly 20 times the EU-28 average) is Zuid-Holland.
