EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 Land cover data from 2018 shows that, of Ireland’s 7.04 million hectares. 4.76 million hectares is used for agriculture (67.6% of the land area). 672,085 hectares is used for forestry (9.5% of the land area). Approximately 25,000 farmers (17% of the total) manage over 2 million hectares on farms of over 50 hectares (CSO, 2018). A further 1.8 million hectares are managed by 55,000 farmers on holdings of between 20 and 50 hectares. Nearly half of all farmers 60,000 work the remaining 0.6 million hectares, on farms averaging 10 hectares in size. Pasture, silage and hay accounted for 80.6 per cent of the area farmed in 2019, with 11.5 per cent devoted to rough grazing and 7.9 per cent to crop production (CSO, 2020). In 2016, there were 137,500 farms in Ireland (CSO, 2018). In total, 20 per cent of farms (28,100 farms) had an output greater than €50,000 per year, with 12 per cent having an output greater than €100,000 . More than half of all farms were in the Border, Midland and Western (BMW) region. The average farm size nationally was 32.4 hectares. Farms in the Southern and Eastern region were 41.3 per cent larger than those in the BMW region with an average farm size of 38.3 hectares compared with 27.1 hectares in the BMW region. More than 55 per cent of farmers in Ireland were aged 55 years and older, with only 5 per cent aged less than 35 years. Specialist beef production was the most common type of farming system, with 72,400 (52.7%) farms in this category. Mixed grazing livestock and specialist dairying were the next most common types, with 16,900 (12.3%) and 16,700 (12.1%) farms. There were 15,200 (11.1%) specialist sheep farms. The remainder was made up of specialist tillage farms, mixed crop and livestock farms, mixed crop farms, and intensive pig, poultry and horticulture enterprises. The Structure of Irish Agriculture 330