Over half of the animals in the national herd have never moved off farm, while almost 45% have recorded between one and three movements.
The number of animals with more than three movements is small, with less than 2% of animals with between four and seven movements, as detailed in Table 1.
The above figures relate to all bovines on the Department of Agriculture’s animal identification and movement (AIM) database on 28 October 2026.
For the purposes of the analysis, a movement is defined as one of the below, with each of these recorded as one movement:
This explains the reason for the category of animals with more than 20 movements, with these likely to be related to animals regularly attending shows.
This is not to be confused with the definition of movements under the quality payment system (QPS) or beef grid. Under QPS criteria, for an animal to be eligible to receive a bonus payment, it can have a maximum of four movements, which is defined as four different owners.
The above data was presented by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon in response to a parliamentary question from Deputy Ryan O’Meara of Fianna Fáil.
