Sheep kill back by almost one fifth in 2025

The sheep kill is back by almost one fifth this year when compared with 2024, according to the latest Central Statsitic Office (CSO) figures.

Between January and November 2025, sheep slaughterings decreased by 18.5% when compared with the same period in 2024.

This is a reduction of 489,000 head to 2.2m head during this period in 2025.

When comparing November 2025 with November 2024, the kill was back 4.8%, a reduction of 9,000 head of sheep.

Meanwhile, the number of cattle slaughtered declined by 12% in the first 11 months of 2025 and fell by 22.7% in November 2025 when compared with the same month in 2024.

ICSA on sheep price cuts

Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) sheep chair Willie Shaw has hit out at meat factories for pulling sheep prices this week, despite sheep numbers being significantly tighter.

“Sheep throughput this year is down by around 20% on last year, which amounts to a staggering 600,000 fewer sheep in the system. In any normal market, that level of tight supply should be lifting prices, not seeing them cut,” he said.

Shaw said adding insult to injury is the fact that price cuts are happening at all given dwindling supplies.

“Processors continue to perform economic gymnastics that fly in the face of basic supply and demand logic. There is no transparency and no accountability in how these prices are set, yet farmers are always the ones left carrying the cost,” he said.

The timing of the cuts, coming just before Christmas, sends the worst possible signal to sheep farmers already under severe pressure, particularly those trying to build a future in the sector, he argued.

“There is constant talk about generational renewal, but it’s hard to see how young people are expected to stay in sheep farming when prices can be cut at critical times of the year.

"If they can’t see a fair return for their work, they simply won’t stay. It really is that straightforward," Shaw said.