The number of cattle slaughterings in March was almost 5% lower than the same month last year, according to the Central Statistic’s Office (CSO).

The CSO has today (Thursday, April 27) released the Livestock Slaughterings March 2023 report.

The data shows that last month, 165,000 cattle were processed in meat factories, compared to 173,400 in March 2022.

During the first three months of this year, almost 475,000 cattle were slaughtered.

This is a decrease of 0.4% when compared with the same period in 2022.

CSO

According to the report, sheep slaughterings increased by 6.9% between January and March 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.

762,000 sheep were processed in the first quarter of this year.

Last month, 285,100 sheep were slaughtered, which is up from the figure of 252,000 recorded in March 2022.

The CSO said that the number of pigs processed fell by 8.1% between January and March 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.

During the first three months of 2023, 849,600 pigs were slaughtered.

In March 2023, factories processed 285,100 pigs, compared to 324,700 during the same month last year.

Image: CSO

Commenting on the data, Mairead Griffin, statistician in the CSO Agriculture Accounts and Production Section, said:

“Cattle slaughterings decreased by 4.9% in March 2023 when compared with March 2022.

“Over that same period, the number of sheep slaughtered grew by 13.2% while the number of pigs slaughtered contracted by 8.2%.

“Further analysis of the data shows that between January and March 2023, slaughterings for Sheep rose by 6.9% while Cattle and Pigs decreased by 0.4% and 8.1% respectively,” Griffin said.