Following the abolition of quotas, Ireland began a period of expansion in the production of dairy products. Since then, milk production has increased by 50%, which is largely due to an increase in the number of dairy cows in the country.

In 2015, the number of dairy cows was 1,295,800 heads, but the Central Statistical Bureau (CSO) showed that the number of dairy cows in the past year was already 1,480,900 heads, thereby increasing the number by 14%.

This was a total increase of 48,200 heads or 3.3% of dairy cows since 2017 and a huge increase of 83,000 (6%) dairy cows since 2016. Today in Ireland dairy cows make up 20% of the total number of cattle.

The most saturated in terms of the number of dairy cows is Cork County: 378,200 cows, which is 25% of the total number of dairy cows in the country. As for the total number of cattle, there are 1,125,000 animals in the county, which is 15% of the total number of cattle in the country.

The second place in the number of dairy cows is taken by the county of Tipperary - there the livestock is 173,200 cows, or 12% of the total. Limerick County is behind Tipperary, with its 118,900 dairy cows, representing 8% of the total dairy population.

The next is the county of Kerry - 100,600 dairy cows, which is almost 7% of the total. The least popular counties for the dairy industry are Dublin County with 2,900 (0.2%) dairy cows and Leitrim County with 2,000 dairy cows (0.14%).