Meat and Livestock

The production of meat accounts for over 40% of Ireland’s gross agricultural output.
Ireland’s production of meat and livestock was dominated by beef, followed by pigmeat and
sheepmeat. Ireland’s meat and livestock exports account for one third of all food and drink
exports. Due to Ireland’s fresh pasturelands, Ireland’s beef herd is predominantly raised on it
under strong quality assurance, traceability and food safety systems, it is increasingly serving the
needs of higher-value and premium retail and food service clients in Europe and around the
world. Ireland has a total land area 7 million hectares, 4.6 m ha for agriculture and 0.75 m ha for
forestry

Beef is, by far, the biggest category within the meat sector, accounting for 21% of food
and drink exports from Ireland. Ireland is the fifth largest beef exporter in the world and the
largest exporter of beef in Europe. Total beef production in Ireland stands at approximately
520,000 tonnes, with around 470,000 tonnes destined for export.
Ireland’s beef is reared on a grass-fed diet, with a 1.1 million beef suckler cow herd kept
on just under 80,000 farms. Beef cattle for the export market are slaughtered at one of around 30
approved export meat plants. Ireland has a total of 6,964 cattles.
Beef production - Irish agriculture’s most important activity in terms of output and farm
employment & occurs on majority of farms. In 2010 Census of Agriculture - 56% (77,738) of
Irish farms were classified as specialised in beef production. This proportion varies regionally
with over two thirds of all farms in the Midlands region classed as specialised in beef production.
Dependence of Irish beef production on the suckler herd is unusual in an EU context. Over the
period 2001-2013 -average share of beef output in total agricultural sector output value has been
28% (same share as milk production). In 2013 Ireland was ranked 20th of all global beef
producers (USDA and Eurostat). Approximately 90% of Irish beef production exported. In 2013
Irish net exports of beef (exports less imports) were the 5 th largest in the world (surpassed only
by Brazil, India, Australia and New Zealand). Export earnings from beef production in 2013
were €2.1 bn (Bord Bia) with all Irish beef exports destined for high value UK and continental
EU markets.
Beef production continues to be important to the Irish economy in terms of export
earnings and employment. Analysis of performance of the top 10% of Single Suckling & Cattle
Finishing farms in the Teagasc National Farm Survey suggests that when FFI is adjusted for the
volume of unpaid (i.e. family) labour used on the farm, incomes earned from beef production
(inclusive of subsidies) can be competitive with other agricultural production activities.
Ireland was one of the first countries in Europe in which peasants could purchase their
landholdings. Today all but a very few farms are family-owned, although some mountain pasture
and bog lands are held in common. Cooperatives are principally production and marketing
enterprises. An annually changing proportion of pasture and arable land is leased out each year,
usually for an eleven-month period, in a traditional system known as conacre.
The Celtic religion had a major influence on Ireland long before the adoption
of Christianity in the 5th century. Its precise rituals and beliefs remain somewhat obscure, but the
names of hundreds of Celtic gods have survived, and elements of the religion—particularly the
cults of Mary (an echo of Danu, the Earth Mother goddess whom the Celts worshiped) and St.
Brigit (one of Ireland’s patron saints) and several seasonal festivals—carried into the Christian
period. Since the conversion to Christianity, Roman Catholicism, with its ecclesiastical seat at
Armagh in Northern Ireland, has been the island’s principal religion.