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Background Notes

Introduction

This release presents final estimates of land utilisation and livestock numbers in June of the reference year at State and Regional level. The estimates for sheep and pigs are based on returns from the June sample survey of agricultural holdings and the June Pig Survey conducted by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for the reference year. The estimates for cattle and for crops are obtained from administrative data from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

Coverage  Farms where the agricultural area used was at least one hectare (2.47 acres) are included in the June Agricultural Sample Survey. Farms with less than one hectare may also be included if they were engaged in intensive production. 

Results        

Crops  The results for crops are based on data obtained from the DAFM Basic Payment Scheme.

Cattle  The results for cattle are obtained from DAFM’s Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) system, formerly known as the Cattle Movement Monitoring System (CMMS). This system was introduced at the beginning of 2000 and involves electronically recording data on animal movements.

Goats  The goat results are obtained from DAFM’s December Sheep and Goat Census for the preceding year.

Sheep  The June results for sheep are based on the trends between the referenece year and the preceding year, obtained by comparing the returns for the same matched sample of farms.

Pigs  A specialist pig survey was conducted by the CSO due to the intensive nature of this activity.

As the figures in the text and tables have been rounded to the nearest 100 units, there may be slight discrepancies between the sum (or difference) of the constituent items and the total shown. Percentage changes have been calculated on actual figures.

 

Composition of Regions

Northern and Western NUTS 2 Region

Border           Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo

West             Galway City, Galway County, Mayo and Roscommon

Southern NUTS 2 Region

Mid-West       Limerick City, Limerick County, Clare and Tipperary

South-East    Waterford City, Waterford County, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford

South-West   Cork City, Cork County and Kerry

Eastern & Midland NUTS Region

Dublin            Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin

Mid-East        Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and Louth

Midland          Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath