The number of cattle slaughtered in September 2019 decreased by 40.2% when compared to September 2018, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Some 96,000 head of cattle were slaughtered last month, CSO figures show; this is down a whopping 64,600 head on the 160,600 slaughtered in September 2018.
A further comparison of September 2019 and September 2018 slaughtering figures also show that sheep slaughterings decreased by 15.9%, from 293,000 last year to 246,500 head last month.
Meanwhile, pig slaughterings increased by 2.5% from 274,900 to 281,700. The CSO also revealed that a comparison of figures for January-September 2019 with the corresponding period of 2018 shows that cattle slaughterings decreased by 3.1% from 1.397 million head to 1.354 million head.
On a more dramatic note, sheep slaughterings decreased by 7.5% for the nine months from January to September of this year, from 2.368 million to 2.19 million.
Pig slaughterings decreased by 0.2% from 2.599 million to 2.594 million head.
