The average dairy herd in NI continued to increase last year to reach 90 cows, figures recently published by DAERA indicate.

Historic records from 1981 show that the average dairy herd has increased almost every year, with the number more than doubling since 1995 when the average dairy farm had just under 45 cows.

Total cow numbers in NI hit a record high in June last year of 317,416 head. While the actual number of herds has been relatively steady since 2011, it has more than halved from 7,108 in 1988 to 3,529 in 2016.

Sucklers and sheep

There were 14,756 suckler herds with an average of 18 cows in NI last year. Suckler numbers have generally been in decline from the high seen in 1998 when both total cow numbers and average herd size were 344,704 and 19, respectively.

Likewise, breeding sheep figures are significantly lower than the highs seen in 1998 of 1,449,824 ewes and 126 ewes in the average flock. Figures for 2016 put the sheep flock at 912,700 ewes, with 99.5 ewes per flock.