Pádraic Fogarty: Sheep farming hits the end of the road

There are alternatives to 'sheep wrecked' landscapes, writes ecologist Pádraic Fogarty

Free-roaming sheep on hills and grasslands year-round has led to the severe degradation of habitats. Picture: Denis Minihane

Cows and cattle come under a lot of scrutiny in the climate debate, but we are not paying enough attention to their farmyard cousins: sheep. According to a recent census from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, there were four million sheep in the Republic at the end of 2022.

Like bovines, sheep also emit greenhouse gases and, while figures vary, the authoritative ‘Our World in Data’ website indicates that emissions from lamb and mutton are roughly 40% of those from bovines. Studies from Teagasc indicate that emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — from sheep may be only 10% of those from beef animals and less again compared to a dairy cow. However, given the number of sheep in the country, this is an important source of climate pollution even if it is lower than that from bovines.