Ewe may find this hard to believe but Donegal has the highest number of sheep in the entire country.
The latest Sheep and Goat Census has been published by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
And it shows that Donegal has topped the poll with the most number of sheep – with a staggering 541,063 animals.
Our friends in Limerick are a little less sheepish with just 21,727 sheep.
The greatest number of mountain-cross sheep was also kept in Co. Donegal with 112,829.
There were 14,000 fewer sheep registered in the country in 2022 compared to 2021, representing a decrease of 0.35%.
The latest census shows that 4.01 million sheep were held across 42,215 active flocks across the country in 2022.
As required by the EU Animal Health Law, the DAFM carries out a census of sheep and goats annually.
2022 sheep census forms were issued in December 2022 to 48,627 sheep keepers registered with DAFM.
Just under 900 respondents who were not keeping sheep on the census date indicated that they did not intend to re-enter sheep farming in the near future.
A total of 85,802 breeding rams were recorded – a decrease of over 400 on the previous year.
