The Department of Agriculture published its annual Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) Statistics Report for 2025 at the end of last week.

The report is jam packed with statistics relating to every aspect of animal movements.

The breakdown of birth registrations by breed type is detailed in this week’s news section while some other notable features are detailed below.

Farmers in Waterford had the highest average herd size of bovines in 2025 with the 1,742 herds possessing an average of 126.8 cattle. The figure was almost twice the national average herd size of 66.4 head.

The average herd size increased marginally by just less than one bovine from 2024 to 2025.

Waterford was marginally ahead of Kilkenny with its 2,492 herds running an average of 126.3 head.

There were two other counties with an average herd size figure of over 100 head.

These were Tipperary where the average herd size in 5,534 herds was 106 head while Wexford’s 2,537 herds had an average of 104.5 cattle.

At the other end of the spectrum the 2,493 farmers in Leitrim had the smallest average herd size of just 24.5 head.

This was followed by Mayo where 7,402 farmers with cattle had an average herd size of 31 head, Sligo where 2,797 herds possessed an average of 33.7 head and in Donegal where 4,470 farmers had an average of 39.1 head.

The next lowest figures were above the 40 head mark in Roscommon (40.3 head) and Galway (41.2 head). Herd size varies greatly in Galway with over half of its 9,353 herds recorded at fewer than 25 head in 2025 while the county still had over 1,000 herds with more than 100 head.

The county of Cork had by far the highest number of bovines and farmers in 2025 with over 900,000 cattle run across 9,566 farms, giving an average herd size of 94.6 head.

This equates to a massive figure of 18.6% of the national cattle herd in 2025.

The high number of cattle is being underpinned by both the sheer number of farmers and a high percentage of farms running large scale operations.

There were 1,955 herds with an average herd size of over 150 head in 2025.

The county accounted for 18.9% of all calf birth registrations in 2025 (430,995 head).

Within this 194 herds registered upwards of 250 calves making Cork the powerhouse of dairying and a significant player in beef production.

The AIM report shows that 60% of all bovines in Cork in 2025 were of a Friesian breed.

The scale of numbers in Cork is put in to perspective when you take that the next highest number of cattle were recorded in Tipperary at 586,625 head, over 300,000 fewer than in Cork.

The next move is also a substantial one with Galway possessing 385,067 cattle and Limerick 362,856 head in 2025. The only other county with over 300,000 head was Kilkenny at 314,707 head.

The breakdown of the national herd on 31 December 2025 comprised almost 2.4m Friesian-sired cattle equating to about 39% of the national herd.

As detailed in Table 1 the number of Aberdeen Angus cattle on farms at the end of 2025 passed the 1m mark which is a notable milestone for end of year statistics.

Angus and Limousin had shared the position of the second-most-common breed of cattle in recent years but a gap of over 130,000 head has now opened up between the two breeds.

Meanwhile the percentage of Charolais-sired cattle has fallen below the 10% mark with Hereford increasing marginally.

The benefits of favourable weather conditions in spring 2025 are clear to be seen in the AIM report with 45,974, or 16%, fewer deaths recorded.

The number of on-farm deaths reduced from 250,653 head to 207,560 head while the number of stillborn animals reduced from 33,278 to 30,397 head.

The on-farm deaths include 56,593 male beef cattle and 62,096 female beef cattle.

Calf deaths were the main category in both accounting for 17,477 male beef calves less than six weeks of age and 15,387 aged six weeks to six months of age.

The comparable figures for heifer calves was 13,731 head and 12,895 head.

Dairy males accounted for just 18,907 on-farm deaths with 5,680 aged under six weeks and 5,348 from six weeks to six months. From the 69,964 dairy female on-farm deaths 34,547 were aged in excess of 48 months of age with 6,771 heifer calves less than six weeks and 6,842 from six weeks to six months of age.

Within the stillborn figure of 30,397 head, there were 21,359 beef-sired calves and 9,038 dairy-sired calves.

The above figures exclude calf slaughterings which have reduced sharply in recent years.

There were 1,100 beef calves aged less than six months and 1,541 dairy calves slaughtered in Department of Agriculture-approved plants and just 26 in local authority-approved plants during 2025.

While Ireland exported more than 350,000 bovines live in 2025 it imported just over 3,000 head of cattle. 3,113 cattle were imported from Northern Ireland with a single animal imported from Britain. In 2024 there were also 112 animals imported live from Germany and 16 from France.

Over 70% of cattle imported in 2025 were destined for direct slaughter with 2,122 of the figure of 2,226 head aged in excess of 30 months. Reports indicate that a high percentage of these were dairy cull cows.

Of the 887 head imported under a breeding and production health certificate 430 were also aged greater than 30 months. There were 105 aged 24 to 30 months, 210 from one to two years of age and the remainder less than one year old.

The total number of imports from Northern Ireland and from further afield were curtailed in 2025 by the bluetongue virus and health certification requirements to move livestock.

The AIM report shows that there were just 8,041 imported animals recorded alive in herds on 31 December 2025. The majority of these were females with just 453 males alive on this date. The number one source of imports were from Austria with 1,945 females and 21 males imported. There was also 1,437 head (1,433 females and four males) from Germany with a significant percentage of these animals likely to include Flekvieh and other breeds of a dairy nature.

There were 1,942 live animals imported from Northern Ireland with a high percentage again likely to be present in dairy herds with this figure followed by 910 from Britain.

Denmark and the Netherlands also feature with 576 and 581 head, respectively while France accounted for 395 cattle including 66 males. There were between 30 and 70 head imported from each of Belgium, Italy, Romania and Slovakia alive on 31 December 2025.