On 1 June, the number of cattle rose by 30,000 compared to a year earlier reaching a total number of 818,000. The number of cows increased by 10,000 over a year.
The total number of pigs and sheep was essentially unchanged in the last six months. The number of pigs hit 3.1, up 64,000 than the same time last year. The number of breeding sows grew by 2,000 compared to June 2014.
Sheep stock numbers
Sheep stock numbers hit 1.2 million, dropping by 45,000, while the number of ewes was 858,000, which was nearly the same as in June last year.
However, chicken stock grew in line with seasonality compared to December of the previous year.
On 1 June the number of chickens in the country was 37.8m, which was 2.25m (6.3%) higher. while the stock of laying hens hit 11.3m, up 1.1m (11%) higher than a year earlier.