Over 1.8 million cattle sold through Irish marts in 2023
Over 1.8 million cattle were sold through Irish livestock marts in 2023, a slight increase of just over 2,000 head on the number of cattle sold at the mart in 2022.
Latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) show 1,817,616 head of cattle were sold at marts in 2023, while 95,322 head of cattle returned home unsold from the mart in 2023.
While the number of cattle sold at the mart increased slightly in 2023, the number of cattle being sold privately fell in 2023.
The table below gives an overview of the number of cattle sold and returned home by provence and by month in 2023:
| Connaught | Connaught | Leinster | Leinster | Munster | Munster | Ulster | Ulster | Total | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sold | Returned home | Sold | Returned home | Sold | Returned home | Sold | Returned home | Sold | Returned home | |
| January | 18734 | 710 | 23980 | 755 | 45569 | 839 | 11142 | 399 | 99,425 | 2,703 |
| February | 34926 | 1837 | 37155 | 1553 | 82760 | 1993 | 17078 | 751 | 171,919 | 6,134 |
| March | 36429 | 2158 | 48964 | 1850 | 122603 | 3499 | 20354 | 914 | 228,350 | 8,421 |
| April | 38591 | 2837 | 50161 | 2401 | 117814 | 3652 | 21966 | 1171 | 228,532 | 10,061 |
| May | 26932 | 2302 | 38059 | 2209 | 78240 | 2825 | 14460 | 933 | 157,691 | 8,269 |
| June | 13058 | 1358 | 22806 | 1460 | 40386 | 1736 | 7463 | 700 | 83,713 | 5,254 |
| July | 14000 | 1565 | 23459 | 1697 | 43004 | 2209 | 8615 | 717 | 89,078 | 6,188 |
| August | 18831 | 1777 | 25217 | 1644 | 42936 | 2207 | 8882 | 784 | 95,866 | 6,412 |
| September | 44653 | 3489 | 40191 | 2370 | 76803 | 2971 | 18590 | 1284 | 180,237 | 10,114 |
| October | 63017 | 6173 | 58410 | 3798 | 100525 | 5128 | 23820 | 1634 | 245,772 | 16,733 |
| November | 41881 | 3530 | 38990 | 2376 | 64080 | 3104 | 16368 | 1284 | 161,319 | 10,294 |
| December | 15832 | 1497 | 19041 | 1176 | 32774 | 1552 | 8067 | 514 | 75,714 | 4,739 |
| Total | 366,884 | 29,233 | 426,433 | 23,289 | 847,494 | 31,715 | 176,805 | 11,085 | 1,817,616 | 95,322 |
| Total | 396,117 | 449,722 | 879,209 | 187,890 | 1,912,938 | |||||
DAFM figures show farm-to-farm cattle movements in 2023 totalled 1,391,146 head, a drop of almost 20,800 head on the number of cattle sold from farm-to-farm in 2022.
The largest number of cattle were sold at Irish marts in October of 2023 at over 245,000 head followed by March and April with over 228,000 head sold at the mart in each of these months.
As the table above indicates, October also had the largest volume of cattle returning home from the marts unsold with over 16,000 cattle going through mart rings unsold that month.
