The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has put the monthly sheep kill for this January at just under 251,000 head, a 10.8% rise on the equivalent number for last year.

There were 227,000 sheep slaughtered in January 2022 and 217,000 over the same period in 2021.

Last month’s rise took an extra 14% of carcase weight on stream, according to the CSO’s figures.

This represents a 10.8% rise in numbers, while the throughput equivalent number slaughtered last year.

Cattle figures

Cattle slaughterings increased 6.7% - some 9,600 head - relative to January 2022.

This brought an extra 4.4% worth of carcase weight on to the market.

There were more cattle sheep and cattle slaughtered over the whole of 2022 than there were in 2021, previously released CSO figures show.

Although the pig throughput remained fairly static, the overall carcase throughput was back.

There were 500 more pigs slaughtered, but their combined carcase weight was back over 4% on the tonnage passing through slaughterhouses in January 2022.

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CSO puts 2022 cattle kill 6.7% higher than 2021