Between January and September 2025, the number of sheep slaughtered in Ireland declined by 19.5% to 1.8 million head, according to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures.
This represents a drop in throughput of over 428,000 head of sheep.
The sheep kill in September 2025 also fell by a staggering 26.7% from 277,000 head to 203,000 when compared with the same month in 2024.
Cattle
Meanwhile, between January and September 2025, cattle slaughterings also decreased by 8.6% to 1.3 million when compared with the same period in 2024 and were down by 20.4% to 135,000 in September 2025 when comparing with September the previous year.
The 8.6% drop represents for January to September a decrease of 119,000 head, while numbers for September 2025 are back 35,000.
While the sheep and cattle kill were back according to the CSO, the number of pigs slaughtered grew.
In the first nine months of 2025, the pig kill increased by 2.4% when compared with the same nine months in 2024 and increased by 6.7% in September 2025 when compared with September 2024.
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