Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) average number of beef and dairy cattle assigned to an Electoral Division (ED) for the year 2020 alongside an age profile of the national herd.
Note: there were instances where an ED contained only a single herd and for GDPR reasons to protect the identification of the individual concerned it was decided to combine all EDs in each county where the number of herds is less than 5 into a single ED e.g. DUBLIN DED < 5 HERDS.
The figures are average figures over the previous 4 quarters to give a truer picture of the national herd. The number of cattle under each cattle classification is taken as an average across four quarterly end points during the year (31 March, 30 June, 30 September, 31 December).
The figures used within the department come from the Animal Identification and Movement system and the beef and dairy cattle are classified as such depending on whether the breed type is a Beef or Dairy Breed.
Temporal land use patterns and livestock numbers across several river catchments. Within DAFM the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) division generated a list of herds who had land in each river catchment area for a select number of river catchments from 2014-2020. The departments Animal Identification & Movement (AIM) division provided the bovine and ovine figures for each herd in each year.
It should be noted that the AIM data was generated for herds who had land in each river catchment area. It is likely that some herds also had land outside the river catchment areas. In total AIM were supplied with 26,002 herds to report on across each location and year. 2,198 of these herds were not included in the final dataset because they either did not have cattle in the period, or did not have sheep census returns in the period (or both).
This dataset is interesting as it is published by Catchment (not County or ED), which makes it useful for water quality purposes. So I asked the Open Data Officer in DAFM why this is the case. Response is as follows:
We received a specific request looking for land use patterns and livestock numbers across several river catchments and how these may have changed over time as part of the Climate Change Mitigation Research Programme | CCMRP | Inland Fisheries Ireland project. As part of the request, we were provided a shapefile by the requester for each river catchment area they required data for. LPIS generated lists of herds who had land in each river catchment area for each year. AIM provided the bovine and ovine figures for each herd in each year.
The number of enforcement actions taken by DAFM against derogation farmers for 2019, 2020 and 2021 to date
The grounds for the enforcement actions
The counties where the farms are located / The catchments impacted by those farms
foi@agriculture.gov.ie
Please find attached decision in regard to AIE Request – reference AIE-21-245
Regards
Bernard Harris Agricultural inspector Nitrates & Biodiversity Division Pavilion A Grattan Business Centre Portlaoise Co Laois
Having considered your request in relation to above, my decision is to part grant you access to the information sought as some of the information sought does not exist/is not held by this Department.
To explain further, Nitrates division works a year in arrears in the assessment of compliance with the Nitrates regulations for all herds, and with the Terms & Conditions of the Nitrates Derogation for those who applied. This is due to the legislative requirements and deadlines placed on farmers and the fact that they have the full relevant calendar year to farm. Due to this, at this point in 2021 there is no data available yet for 2021. So, data in relation to 2021 does not yet exist and is therefore refused.
I have however, granted your request in relation to the data available for 2019 and 2020. The information sought for questions 1 to 3 inclusive is contained in Appendix 1 at the bottom of this correspondence
This leads on to the next part of your request that I am decision maker for namely Question 4. Having considered your request in relation to above, my decision is to refuse you access to the information sought as this information does not exist/is not held by this Department. To explain we do not hold records in the format you request, so for the purposes of this request, the records do not exist as we do not hold records in the catchment format you requested.
Legal basis: Milk (Regulation of Supply) Act 1994 – S. 2 Maximum Number of Positions: 14 Gender Balance Numbers: Female (0), Male (16) Gender Balance Percentage: Female (0%), Male (100%)
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) map of bovine population per km2.
While Leinster and Munster contain the largest cattle populations, certain areas of Ulster and Connacht also contain pockets where stocking density is surprisingly high.
Areas that bovine population is highest per km2 can be linked with counties that traditionally have a high dairy cow population, such as Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Kilkenny.
Since quotas have been lifted in Ireland, an increase in livestock numbers has been witnessed in areas that would have traditionally been tillage regions.
The map was published in DAFM’s Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) Bovine Statistics Report for 2020.
The Commission Decision of 8th February 2018 permits the land application of up to 250 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare per year from livestock manure under certain conditions.
Article 7 of the Commission Decision requires that maps showing information concerning approved derogations on a county basis be submitted annually to the Commission.
Article 8 sets out the reporting requirements for the purposes of the Commission Decision.
This report is submitted to address the requirements of Articles 8 and 10 and relates to operation of the derogation in Ireland during 2019.
Numbers of derogation applicants and the results of administrative checks 2019
Te Agricultural Sustainability, Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP) was established in a collaborative process between the state and the dairy processing co-ops, to provide an evidence based approach to agri pressure identification.
The key operating principles of the ASSAP are: I. The ASSAP programme provides farm advice and support only II. It is voluntary and collaborative III. There is no connection to the regulatory and compliance mechanisms of the state
Aim of ASSAP: To provide a free and confidential advisory service for farmers located in the 190 priority areas for action (PAA’s) identified in the national river basin management plan 2018-2021 and to provide farmers with advice focused on the prevention of contaminant losses to waters with a view to attaining water framework directive water quality targets.
