Signs that the suckler herd might have stabilised, along with more dairy cows being put to beef bulls, has meant beef cattle numbers on NI farms are up by over 2% on this time last year.

Analysis of NIFAIS data by the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) shows that on 1 July 2026 most of the age categories of beef males and beef females had higher numbers than the year previous.

In the case of 18 to 24-month-old beef males, the number on farms was up 4.5% at 48,826, with beef heifers up 8.8% at 58,848.

The number of dairy sired males on farms has been on a steady decline in recent years thanks to the continued switch to sexed semen. While those in the 18 to 24-month category were down another 10% to 8,755, this drop does not compensate for the increases among beef sired males and females.

Shown in Table 1 is the total number of cattle destined for beef production on farms on 1 July in each of the last five years, split into two age categories of zero to one year and one to two years.

A proportion of the beef heifers in each of the two age groups will end up as replacements in the local suckler herd. However, it is fair to assume the vast majority of the one to two year-old cattle will end up slaughtered by next spring.

Numbers within that age bracket are up by over 2% to 340,714, although that 2026 total is still lower than any of the previous three years, so there isn’t a surge coming forward. However, young cattle aged zero to one year on farms are up by nearly 3% to 366,091, which is its highest in recent years.

Short-term

Finished cattle on farms remains very tight and that can be partly explained by the LMC analysis. On 1 July 2026, there were 109,888 cattle on farms aged 24 to 30 months and destined for beef production, down nearly 2% on the equivalent figure from 2025.

Suckler herd

The LMC data also shows beef sired females on farms aged over 30 months. Most of the animals are suckler cows and between 2022 and 2025, totals in this age category fell by nearly 30,000 head to 223,996. However, in 2026, there has been a small increase of 0.6%, taking the total to 225,232.