72% of dairy farms in derogation have 150 cows or fewer

Some 72% of dairy farms in derogation in 2024 had 150 cows or fewer, according to new data released by the Department of Agriculture.

Responding to a question from TD Ryan O’Meara, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon revealed that of the 6,249 dairy farms in derogation two years ago, 4,524 had 150 cows or fewer, which equates to 72%,

One-hundred cows or fewer accounted for 44% of dairy farms in derogation that year, while 85% of derogation dairy farms fell into the 200 cows or less bracket.

Three-hundred cow plus dairy farms accounted for 321 dairy derogation farms, some 5%.

Dairy farms with 80 cows are fewer made up 28% of derogation farms, while 14% had 60 cows or fewer.

Some 90 dairy farms in derogation had 20 cows or fewer.

The figures released by the Department showed that in total, 6,824 farms in the country were in derogation in 2024.

This means some 575 non-dairy farms were in derogation, equating to 8% of all derogation farms.

Land

Looking at the size of total derogation farms, 2,582 had 80ha or more, 38%.

Some 24% of derogation farms had 41 to 60ha of land available to them, while 9% had 31 to 40ha.

A total of 50 farms in derogation had less than 10ha.