Farmers who do not submit a sheep census return by the deadline of 14 February 2025 risk being frozen out of important schemes such as the Sheep Welfare Scheme and the Sheep Improvement Scheme.

Participation in these schemes is subject to submitting a sheep census before the deadline.

At this stage, the only option is to submit the census via the agfood.ie portal or the Department’s sheep services app.

The date of the census was 31 December 2024. Farmers with no sheep on 31 December who received a census return should make a submission stating if they plan to return to sheep production or not.

How-to

Where accessing through the agfood.ie account, select the heading ‘Animal Identification and Movements’ followed by selecting ‘Sheep keeper’. This will be the only option for farms which do not have cattle.

The next step is selecting ‘Census’ and ‘Create’ in the top left of the screen. Previous census returns can be viewed under the ‘View’ option, while the portal can also be used to amend previously entered details.

The date the census is received will be listed in a successful submission along with a summary of entered data.