410,000 cattle were slaughtered in Ireland between January and March this year, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The Livestock Slaughterings March 2026 report published today (Tuesday, April 28) shows this represents a drop of 15% when compared to the same three-month period in 2025 (483,000 head).

The number of cattle slaughtered in March 2026 fell by 11,000 heads or 7.1% to 147,000 head when compared with the same month in 2025, when over 158,000 cattle were processed.

CSO

The number of sheep slaughtered declined by 1.9% between January and March 2026.

In the first quarter (Q1) of the year, over 566,000 sheep were slaughtered, compared with 577,000 in the corresponding period last year.

It also marks a significant fall on the almost 750,000 sheep processed in Q1 2024.

Sheep slaughterings in March 2026 stood at 203,000 head, an increase of 1,000 head (+0.3%) when compared with the same month in 2025.

The number of pigs slaughtered in the first three months of 2026 grew by 5.2% when compared with the same three-month period in 2025.

Between January and March 2026, the CSO data shows that over 875,000 pigs were processed, up 43,000 head from the 831,000 pigs processed in Q1 2025.

The number of pigs slaughtered in March 2026 rose by 30,000 head or 11% to 301,000 head when compared with March 2025.