Hiram Morgan: It’s time to steer away from an inflated cattle population

The issue is plain. Can the land in Cork or indeed anywhere in Ireland sustain the large numbers of livestock we now have?

Ireland has always prized the cow, but while in 1589 there were 151,000 head of cattle in Co Cork, that number is well over a million now and growing.

Sometimes history can tell a basic truth. Pertinent to our current environmental crisis, there is one very interesting document from our colonial past relating to the government of Munster in 1589 when the plantation was being established there. It is a detailed estimate of livestock numbers in Co Cork for taxable purposes in State Papers Ireland. Similar compilations for the other Munster countries were plainly intended but they were either never carried out or haven’t survived. The extant document estimated that there were 151,000 head of cattle in the county.

Today there are well over a million. That should be a big cause of worry as the size of Cork has not changed in the interim!