Agricultural land under cereals rose by almost 5% in 12 months
The percentage of land used for winter barley increased by 46.9%.
Agricultural land under cereals increased by 4.9% in the 12 months to June 2025.
The ‘total area farmed’ in June 2025 fell by 300ha to 4.4m ha when compared with June 2024. The area used for cereal production increased by 13,000 ha (4.9%) to 274,900 ha.
Grassland, which accounts for more than 90% of total area farmed, fell by 0.4% in 2025 when compared with 2024.
The 4.9% (13,000ha) increase in land used for cereals, bringing the total to 274,000ha in the 12 months to June 2025, was mainly driven by a 47.7% rise in the area sown to winter cereals, according to the latest CSO report on the finalised June 2025 crops and livestock survey.
CSO statistician in the Agriculture Division Stephanie Kelleher said: “Regarding the three main cereals, the land areas under winter wheat, winter oats and winter barley all increased by 19,100 ha (+46.9%), 10,500 ha (+140.3%) and 14,000 ha (+32.4%) respectively in June 2025 when compared with June 2024.”
Their spring equivalents all dropped in area from 2024 to 2025 with spring wheat dropping by 33.4% (2,400 ha), spring oats by 28.8% (6,400 ha) and spring barley 16.5% (22,900ha).
The Mid-East and Dublin combined region had the highest area under cereals (93,500 ha), followed by the South-East region (79,700 ha).
Across cattle, sheep and pigs, all three experienced a fall in total numbers, with pigs having the largest decrease between 2024 and 2025 by 6.8% (113,400). Breeding pigs dropped by 11% (16,800) in the same period. ‘Other’ pigs category saw a total drop of 6.3% (96,600) from June 2024 to June 2025.
Total cattle dropped by 3.9% change between 2024 and 2025 a fall of 278,300 head to total 6.9 million head.
The number of dairy cows fell by 36,100 (2.2%) while the number of ‘other’ cows dropped by 46,800 (5.7%) when compared with June 2024. The number of bulls was lower by 100 (0.2%).
Ms Kelleher said: “The total number of cattle aged two years and over fell by 59,400 (-7.3%) in the year since 2024.”
The total number of sheep in June 2025 dropped to just over five million, a fall of 77,200, or 1.5%, when compared to June 2024. The number of breeding sheep fell by 2.7%, while the number of other sheep fell by 0.2%.
In a regional breakdown of livestock, the West region had the highest number of sheep (1,426,100) while the Border region had the highest number of pigs (507,500).
The Southern region had the highest number of cattle in June 2025, with over a million cattle in the Mid-West and South-West regions. Cork was the county with the highest number of cattle, at just over one million (1,026,000) in June 2025.
