How many specialist farms are in your county?
Over 74,000 farms were classified as beef specialists last year, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
As part of the Census of Agriculture 2020, the CSO said that the total Agricultural Area Utilised (AAU) on farms in Ireland has been over 4.5 million hectares since 2010.
Last year, Dublin, Waterford and Kilkenny had the highest average AAU.
The smallest average AAU values were recorded in Monaghan, Mayo and Leitrim.
Western and border counties had lower AAU than the south, midlands and east of the country.
| County | Average Agricultural Area Utilised on farms |
|---|---|
| Carlow | 40.7ha |
| Cavan | 26.2ha |
| Clare | 32.1ha |
| Cork | 38.7ha |
| Donegal | 27.4ha |
| Dublin | 47.3ha |
| Galway | 26.5ha |
| Kerry | 35.2ha |
| Kildare | 44.8ha |
| Kilkenny | 45.7ha |
| Laois | 38ha |
| Leitrim | 25.5ha |
| Limerick | 36.2ha |
| Longford | 28.3ha |
| Louth | 37.8ha |
| Mayo | 23.4ha |
| Meath | 43.8ha |
| Monaghan | 23.2ha |
| Offaly | 37.6ha |
| Roscommon | 27.7ha |
| Sligo | 27.1ha |
| Tipperary | 42.2ha |
| Waterford | 47ha |
| Westmeath | 38.1ha |
| Wexford | 41.8haa |
| Wicklow | 42ha |
The total number of farms between 1991 and 2020 fell by 3.4% from 170,578 to 135,037.
In the decade from 2010 to 2020, there was a loss of 4,823 farms. The average farm size in 1991 was 26ha.
The CSO said in 2020, the average farm size had increased by 2.2% to 33.4ha.
Of the 135,037 farms in Ireland last year, 74,159 enterprises were classified by the CSO as specialist beef production.
There were 17,435 farms specialising in sheep 15,319 in dairying and 4,567 in tillage.
11,516 farms were growing mixed field crops, 8,508 were classed as mixed grazing livestock and 1,759 were a mixture of crops and livestock.
Over one in five farms in Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick and Tipperary were classified as specialist dairying. 57.5% of the specialist dairy farms were over 50ha.
Over 45% of specialist beef and sheep farms were less than 20ha in size, while one sixth of specialised tillage enterprises were over 100ha.
The prevalence of specialist beef production varied from 27.5% of farms in Wicklow to 81.1% in Clare.
Over half of farms in 14 counties were classified as having a sole beef focus.
Specialist sheep farms were prominent in the border, west, southwest and mid-east regions.Donegal, Wicklow, Mayo and Kerry recorded over 20% of farms as specialising in sheep.
| County | Dairy | Beef | Sheep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlow | 9.2% | 34.7% | 15.7% |
| Cavan | 10.8% | 68.3% | 7.9% |
| Clare | 7.7% | 81.1% | 1.5% |
| Cork | 27.7% | 42.7% | 6% |
| Donegal | 2% | 32.8% | 44.9% |
| Dublin | 3.6% | 28.5% | 16.5% |
| Galway | 3.4% | 66.5% | 12% |
| Kerry | 16.4% | 47.5% | 20.4% |
| Kildare | 6% | 42.7% | 11.7% |
| Kilkenny | 23.5% | 45.1% | 4.8% |
| Laois | 13% | 57.1% | 3.4% |
| Leitrim | 0.9% | 65.2% | 19% |
| Limerick | 23.5% | 61.4% | 1.1% |
| Longford | 5.1% | 78.6% | 4.2% |
| Louth | 9.1% | 40% | 12.5% |
| Mayo | 2.2% | 57.5% | 24.2% |
| Meath | 10.8% | 50% | 8.5% |
| Monaghan | 12% | 67.1% | 4.3% |
| Offaly | 9.6% | 65.8% | 4.4% |
| Roscommon | 1.5% | 71.7% | 9.7% |
| Sligo | 2.5% | 64.4% | 18% |
| Tipperary | 21.5% | 53.7% | 3.7% |
| Waterford | 26.5% | 39.7% | 6.5% |
| Westmeath | 7.8% | 68.2% | 6% |
| Wexford | 17.1% | 29% | 9% |
| Wicklow | 8.6% | 27.5% | 30.1% |
