Christmas dinner is a big deal for everyone in Ireland and especially so for farmers.

Almost 60% of Irish people will tuck into a meal that centres on a combination of turkey and ham, according to a Bord Bia survey.

Some 18% will choose to eat turkey on its own, while 9% choose a ham-only festive meal. Other poultry choices include goose (4%) and duck (3%).

Here, we take a look at the sheer volume of meat and vegetables that will be eaten on Monday, 25 December.

1.09m turkeys

Almost 1.1m turkeys will be consumed this Christmas, with most of them coming from Irish farms.

Around 850,000 turkeys are reared on farms like Joan Sullivan’s farm in Aughnakillmore, Ballinalee, Co Longford. The farmer rears and supplies her own butcher’s shop with free range turkeys, chickens, Angus and Hereford beef. Turkey sales amount to €10m at the checkouts.

Around 240,000 turkeys are imported into Ireland.

Check for the Bord Bia Quality Mark if you want to buy quality-assured Irish turkeys in the supermarket and at the butcher’s.

3,500t of ham

Around €15m is spent on ham and bacon every December, with around 3,500t of it consumed at the Christmas table. Large quantities of Danish and Dutch pigmeat are imported into Ireland every year. Be sure to check the label for the Bord Bia mark. If you really want to know where your ham is coming from, check out farms like the Conroys’ Woodside Farm in Ballincurrig, Co Cork. Their free-range pigs spend their time rooting in the east Cork soil and are fed rolled wheat, kale and turnips. The farm has won a Eurotoque Award for its sustainable farming practice and high animal welfare standards.

15,000t of potatoes

It certainly doesn’t have to be Christmas day for potatoes to feature on the Irish dinner table, but 25 December will see the humble spud cooked at least two ways in most houses.

Some 15,000t of potatoes will be eaten on Monday, which is worth almost €3.5m to farmers.

The most common varieties eaten are Golden Wonder and Kerr’s Pink, grown by farmers such as Graham Sweeney at the Mills of Louth, Co Louth.

1,500t of sprouts

Up to 1,500t of Brussels sprouts worth €1.35m will be served up this Christmas. The Brussels sprouts season runs from September to March but around half of the country’s 4,000t annual crop is sold in just 10 days of the year. SuperValu alone expects to sell 64,000 nets of Brussels sprouts in its stores this year. There are only four Brussels sprouts producers in Ireland and they include the Keogh family in Tara, Co Meath, and Paudie Hanafin who farms at Ballygarron, Tralee, Co Kerry.

3,000t of carrots

The festive season sees around 3,000t of carrots sold. The Christmas trade is worth €900,000 to Irish farmers, who supply 100% of the carrot market from their 1,500ac. Among them are Irish Farmers Journal writer Julian Hughes, who farms from his base in Kilkenny. All of his carrots are sold to O’Shea Farms, a family-run business in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, which in turn supplies Aldi and SuperValu through its Iverk Produce brand.

1,000t of parsnips

Irish farmers grow around 500ac of parsnips annually.

This yields a crop of 6,000t for the year, of which 1,000t will be eaten on Christmas day.

The parsnip’s presence in the festive feast is worth about €800,000 to farmers.