| Total Cereals | Cattle | Sheep | |
| '000 Hectares(ha) | |||
| '000 | '000 | ||
| June 2019 | 267.7 | 7,208.6 | 5,145.8 |
| June 2020 | 266.6 | 7,314.4 | 5,531.1 |
| % change | -0.4 | +1.5 | +7.5 |
The final results for June 2020 show that the total number of cattle increased by 105,800 (+1.5%) to 7,314,400 when compared to June 2019. The total number of male cattle increased by 30,400 (+1.4%) while the total number of female cattle increased by 75,500 (+1.5%). See Table 2.
The total number of male cattle under 1 year increased by 73,700 (+7.8%) and the total number of female cattle under 1 year increased by 35,400 (+3.3%). See Table 2.
A comparison with the June 2019 results show that:
The area under cereals decreased by 1,100 hectares (ha) (-0.4%) to 266,600 ha. The area under wheat decreased by 16,500 ha (-26%). The area under oats increased by 1,600 ha (+6.8%). The area under barley increased by 13,800 ha (+7.7%). See Table 1.
A regional analysis of the livestock numbers shows that the largest number of cattle (1,462,700) was in the South-West region, the largest number of sheep (1,518,300) was in the West region and the largest number of pigs (402,600) was in the Border region. See Tables 4 and 5.
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of the Census of Agriculture it was necessary to estimate the June Final figures for sheep and grassland area using DAFM administrative data and preliminary results from the 2020 Census of Agriculture collected in September 2020. As a result of this methodological change the consistency of December and June sheep numbers has been improved, but there has been a break in the June sheep number series and the year-on-year differences in June sheep numbers should be treated with caution. When final data from the Census of Agriculture becomes available it will be used to improve the consistency and accuracy of the June sheep and grassland time series. |
