Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marinecc-byData covers 2019–2023
· dataset listing last updated 2024-03-06T13:50:58.257372
Beef slaughter rose 18% between 2019 and 2023, driven by a sharp 19% surge in 2020 before levelling off
Why this matters
The 2020 surge followed disruptions to abattoir operations from COVID-19 restrictions in Q2, with much of the annual rise occurring in Q3 when throughputs rebounded from 2019's farmer protests at processing plants over beef prices. Ireland's beef sector is a critical export industry, with strong export performance reported in recent years despite ongoing debates about climate targets and herd reduction.
Average weekly slaughter numbers increased from 4,077 in late 2019 to 4,797 by late 2023, an 18% rise over the four-year period
The sharpest year-on-year increase was 19% in 2020, followed by a 5% decline in 2021, an 8% rise in 2022, and a 4% decline in 2023
Steers accounted for 2.37 million animals slaughtered over the period, 27% more than heifers (1.73 million), making them the dominant animal type in the beef kill
Classification category C (which includes steers) also led with 2.37 million animals, 27% ahead of category E (1.73 million, which includes heifers)
Weekly slaughter peaked at an average of 5,001 animals in 2022 before declining 4% in 2023
By total Number, 'C' leads all Classification Cateogory categories with 2373415, 27% ahead of runner-up 'E' (1734314).View underlying data
Category
Value
C
2373415.0
E
1734314.0
D
1317773.0
A
469412.0
V
106726.0
B
99627.0
Z
6141.0
The sharpest period-over-period move in Number was +19% at 2020-12-31.View underlying data
Period
Number
2019-12-31
4077.4286
2020-12-31
4863.022
2021-12-31
4634.9643
2022-12-31
5001.3489
2023-12-31
4797.0539
A caveat worth knowing: This dataset covers weekly beef kill figures but does not explain what drove the 2020 surge or subsequent volatility—factors such as COVID-19 disruptions, market conditions, or herd demographics are not recorded
API endpoint used: https://opendata.agriculture.gov.ie/datastore/dump/49d0db3a-96c5-4ae1-a5aa-068df27b1788
Licence: cc-by
Selected automatically — interestingness score 65/100
(has a time dimension, multiple numeric fields, and/or a categorical breakdown;
see the project's scoring method for details).
Published 2026-08-10T11:05:48.213656+00:00.
Generated automatically by Ireland Open Data Analyst — every quantitative claim above
was checked against a computed value before publishing.