Livestock husbandry, 1 January 2008, preliminary figures

The decline in the number of livestock farmers from 2007 to 2008 comprises farmers with all kinds of domestic animals except farmers with broilers. Holdings with pigs and holdings with beef cows were down by 8 per cent from the previous year. The number of holdings with dairy cows dropped 6 per cent, while the decline in the number of holdings with dairy goats was 5 per cent. Holdings with broilers increased by 5 per cent from 2007 to 2008.

The number of dairy cows grew by 3 100 to 261 800 in 2008, while the number of beef cows decreased by 2 100 to 54 300 from 2007 to 2008.

From 2007 to 2008 the number of dairy goats was reduced by 4 per cent to 38 700. The number of breeding pigs fell by 1 100 to 97 000, while the number of pigs slaughtered decreased by 2 per cent to 1.44 million pigs in 2007.

Fifty-one million chickens were slaughtered in 2007, up by 4.2 million from the year before, and an increase of 27 million since 1997.

Tables:

• Table 1 Holdings keeping domestic animals of various kinds as per 1 January. County
• Table 2 Cattle and sheep. Number of heads as per 1 January. County
• Table 3 Various domestic animals. Number of heads as per 1 January. County
• Table 4 Holdings with various kinds of domestic animals, by size of herd. As per 1 January