National statistics

Livestock populations in England at 1 June 2023

Updated 29 February 2024

Applies to England

This release contains the estimates of cattle, sheep, pig and poultry populations on commercial agricultural holdings in England on 1 June 2023 from the June Survey of Agriculture.

All results tables are available in the accompanying dataset at Livestock populations in England 2002 to 2023. This dataset contains detailed breakdowns for all livestock, including poultry and other livestock.

Livestock

• The total number of cattle and calves in England decreased by 0.5% to just under 5.1 million in June 2023. The breeding herd saw a decrease of 1.8% and now stands at 1.7 million.
• In 2023, the total number of pigs in England decreased by 12% to 3.6 million animals. Breeding pig numbers remain stable at 329 thousand animals, while fattening pigs fell by 13%.
• The total number of sheep and lambs decreased by 3.2%, to 14.5 million in 2023. The female breeding flock fell by 1.6% to 7.0 million and lambs by 4.9% to 7.1 million.
• The total number of poultry decreased by 6.0% to 131 million in 2023. Broiler numbers also saw a decrease of 6.4%, to just over 91 million and the breeding and laying flock fell by 1.1% to 32 million. Turkey numbers fell by around a third to 2.4 million.

Section 1 – Detailed results

1.1 Cattle

The number of cattle and calves in England has decreased by 0.5% between 2022 and 2023 and now stands at just under 5.1 million animals.

Figure 1 - Breakdown of the female cattle breeding herd in England at 1 June (Number of cattle)

year	Beef herd	Dairy herd	Total
2019	698,586	1,130,504	1,829,090
2020	688,292	1,111,664	1,799,956
2021	665,336	1,102,062	1,767,398
2022	650,836	1,093,845	1,744,681
2023	627,101	1,086,534	1,713,635

The breeding herd has decreased slightly, falling by 1.8% to 1.7 million animals in 2023 but continues to account for just over a third of the overall total number of cattle in England. Within this, the dairy herd fell by 0.7% and now stands at just under 1.1 million animals, accounting for just under two thirds of the breeding herd. The beef herd has also decreased, falling by 3.6% to 627 thousand animals (Figure 1).

1.2 Pigs

The number of pigs in England has decreased by 12% to 3.6 million in 2023, the lowest since 2011, driven by a 13% fall in the number of fattening pigs.

The backlog of pigs seen in 2022 led to a sharp fall in breeding herd numbers. Numbers in 2023 have fallen by a much smaller amount, with the overall number of breeding pigs stabilising at 329 thousand head. The female breeding herd which accounts for 78% of breeding pigs fell by 1.5% to 257 thousand head. Decreases were seen across all other breeding categories, except for gilts in pig, which saw an increase of 8.9% to 31 thousand head (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Breakdown of the female pig breeding herd in England at 1 June (Number of pigs)

year	Sows in pig	Gilts in pig	Other sows	Total
2019	234,028	42,910	50,129	327,067
2020	232,430	41,496	44,924	318,850
2021	220,915	40,032	52,050	312,997
2022	189,301	28,860	42,646	260,807
2023	183,570	31,439	41,989	256,998

(1) Other sows are those either being suckled or dry sows kept for further breeding.

Fattening pigs account for 91% of all pigs and stood at 3.3 million in 2023, This was a decrease of 13% when compared with 2022 and is the lowest it has been in the past 10 years.

Decreases were largely seen at smaller producer level and are likely due to the industry only now seeing the full extent from the backlog of pigs in 2022, coupled with higher production costs and some easing in domestic demand. The fall in pig numbers is supported by the reductions seen in slaughterings during 2023.

1.3 Sheep

The number of sheep and lambs in England has decreased by 3.2%, to just under 14.5 million in 2023, a likely reaction to the increase in input costs and continues the overall downward trend in flock size seen in recent years.

Lambs account for just under half of all sheep and decreased by 4.9% to 7.1 million. The female breeding flock accounts for a further 48% of all sheep and also saw a decrease in 2023, falling by 1.6% to just under 7.0 million sheep (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Breakdown of the total sheep in England at 1 June (Number of sheep)

year	Female breeding flock	Other sheep and lambs	Total
2019	7,233,785	8,156,199	15,389,984
2020	6,977,348	8,049,425	15,026,773
2021	6,873,017	7,753,215	14,626,232
2022	7,071,821	7,849,786	14,921,607
2023	6,955,500	7,495,046	14,450,546

1.4 Poultry

The number of poultry in England has decreased by 6.0% to 131 million in 2023. The impact of avian influenza and the higher input costs faced by commercial poultry sectors have likely led to the reduction in numbers in 2023.

The overall fall in numbers is largely due to a 6.4% fall to 91.1 million in the number of table chickens (broilers), which account for 70% of all poultry. The number of breeding and laying fowl showed a smaller decrease, dropping by 1.1% to 32.2 million (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Breakdown of the total breeding and laying flock in England at 1 June (Number of birds)

Year	Hens and pullets laying eggs for eating	Breeding flock	Total
2019	25,388,360	8,410,760	33,799,120
2020	24,472,143	8,559,157	33,031,300
2021	24,924,306	8,518,660	33,442,966
2022	24,050,604	8,507,703	32,558,307
2023	23,006,783	9,196,620	32,203,403

The number of turkeys has decreased by around a third to 2.4 million birds. High culling due to avian influenza in 2022 and other potential factors such as increased input costs and customer preferences may have led to the fall in number.

Section 2 – About these statistics

2.1 Survey methodology

Full details of the survey methodology are available on the Structure of the agricultural industry guidance web page.

The June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture has been run predominantly online since 2011, with an option for farmers to complete a paper form if they prefer. The survey is annual and samples around 30,000 holdings most years, with a full census run once a decade. The last census was run in 2021.

The June 2023 survey was sent to a sample of 30,000 commercial holdings and responses were received from 17,000 holdings, representing a response rate of 56%. Commercial holdings are defined as those with more than five hectares of agricultural land, one hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables or 0.1 hectares of protected crops, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry.

Table 1 provides details of the sample survey population broken down by farm size. The size of a farm is determined by its Standard Labour Requirement (SLR) which is the typical number of full-time workers required on the holding based on its activity.

Table 1: June 2023 population size and sampling rate

Stratum	Description	Sampling rate (%)	Population size
1	SLR < 0.5	11%	51,813
2	SLR >= 0.5 and < 1	20%	14,898
3	SLR >= 1 and < 2	36%	13,374
4	SLR >= 2 and < 3	52%	7,130
5	SLR >= 3 and < 5	70%	7,019
6	SLR >= 5	83%	7,423
10	SLR unknown	27%	4,790
	All	28%	106,447

For pig and poultry sectors, an additional data collection exercise was run to collect data from a central point for some of the largest companies. Cattle results are sourced from the Cattle Tracing System (CTS). The data include returns from all holdings with cattle so are not subject to survey error.

2.2 Data analysis

The data are subject to rigorous validation checks which identify inconsistencies within the data or large year-on-year changes. Any records that have not been cleaned by the results production stage are excluded from the analysis.

Population totals are estimated for each question on the survey to account for the non-sampled and non-responding holdings. This survey uses the technique known as ratio raising, in which the trend between the sample data and base data (previous year’s data) is calculated for each stratum. The calculated ratio is then applied to the previous year’s population data to give England level estimates. For holdings where we do not have base data (new holdings or long-term non-responders) the sample estimates are raised according to the inverse sampling fraction.

2.3 Confidence indicators

Confidence intervals and tick based indicators are shown alongside all of our estimated figures and can be found in the data tables within the dataset. These both help to show where there is more variability around results and highlight whether year-on-year changes are statistically significant or not. Whilst these are a useful indicator, they do not take into account any other sources of survey errors, such as non-response bias or administrative data errors.

2.4 Data notes

• All figures relate to commercial holdings apart from the cattle figures which relate to all holdings as these data are sourced from the Cattle Tracing Scheme.
• All percentage changes are based on unrounded figures.
• Totals may not necessarily agree with the sum of their components due to rounding.

2.5 Data uses and users

Results from the June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture have a wide range of uses and users with requests for data being made on a frequent basis. A document providing information of specific uses and users can be found on our guidance and notes.

2.6 Other survey results and publications

The next releases from the June Survey are expected to be at the end of September. The definitive publication date will be announced on the research and statistics webpage on gov.uk.

More detailed results from the June Survey can be found on our Structure of the agricultural industry in England and the UK at June web page. This includes various time series of crop areas and livestock numbers dating back as early as 1866 and detailed geographical breakdowns of the results.

2.7 Feedback

We welcome feedback and any thoughts to improve the publication further. Please send any feedback to: farming-statistics@defra.gov.uk.

Section 3 - What you need to know about this release

Contact details

Responsible statistician: Sarah Thompson

Team: Farming Statistics – Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Email: farming-statistics@defra.gov.uk

Tel: 0300 060 0170

National Statistics Status

National Statistics status means that our statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value and it is our responsibility to maintain compliance with these standards.

The continued designation of these statistics as National Statistics was confirmed in 2014 following a full assessment by the UK Statistics Authority against the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Since the last review of these statistics in 2014, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made improvements including:

• Reviewed and amended the validation checks carried out on response data including validation against new administrative data sources to better assure ourselves of the quality of the statistics.
• Enhanced trustworthiness by removing pre-release access.

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