The national Beef herd stands at 934,273 cows, the population has declined from 2018 to 2019, by a staggering 42,065 cows. In the last 4 years, the number of beef cows in Ireland has declined year on year. From 2016 to 2019 the national beef herd has decreased by 83,936 cows.
Below we have the latest 2019 cow figures broken down by county. Galway is still leading the way in terms of Beef cow population with a total of 97,732 Beef animals, a decrease of 3303 cows from 2018. This figure is over 25,000 higher than the beef cow population in county Mayo which is the second most highly populated county with a figure of 72,558. The third most highly populated county for beef cows is county Clare with a figure of 68,374 beef cows. Clare is followed closely by county Cork with 65,559 beef cows. The least populated county for beef cows is county Dublin with a population of just 3,948 beef cows. The second least populated county is county Louth with a population of 9,400 beef cows. County Carlow completes the bottom 3 counties for beef cow population with a figure of 14,538 beef cows.
