This dashboard presents results from an annual inventory for monitoring livestock breed populations and breeding structures. It provides data on the status and trends in the domestic cattle, sheep, pig, goat and horse Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR) with annual data from 2000 to 2024 for around 100 breeds of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and horses which are present in the UK.
This dashboard focuses on the derived measures for native breeds of; the estimated breeding female population calculated from the number of female registrations per year, and the estimated breeding population (Ne), calculated from the number of sires and dams who produced offspring each year. More data, as well as information on how these numbers are derived can be found on the main FAnGr publication page
The data presented shows the estimated female population sizes and estimated breeding population size(Ne) for the years 2010 to 2024.
Each individual breed can be selected by double-clicking on that breed in the graph legend, additional breeds can be added to the selection by clicking on additional breeds within the graph legend. The current selection can also be filtered by whether it is a Breed at Risk (BAR), Native Breed at Risk (NBAR) or if it’s Zootech Recognised (ZR).
All the annual data is reported through either Grassroots Systems Ltd., the British Pig Association or the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Coverage has been steadily increasing since the annual inventory was first developed in 2013. The response rate for the 2022 inventory was 92% (208 breeds). Breed societies have given their permission for these companies to supply the data every year for this exercise. Any breed-specific exceptions to this coverage are detailed in the ‘Definitions & Breed notes’ section.
The pig data on numbers of pedigree breeding sows (with the exception of the British Lop and KuneKune) are sourced from the Bloodline Census, an annual exercise carried out by the British Pig Association (results are available on the British Pigs website). This Census also collects data on the number of members keeping registered pigs.
Data for all other breeds are collected annually via a survey. Questionnaires are emailed and non-respondents are contacted several times to encourage response. Priority is given to gathering comprehensive data from native breeds. It is made clear to participating breed societies in advance that all data supplied will be published (as it is all collected at the aggregate level). Therefore, there are no confidentiality issues around the data. Some breed societies already publish this information in their flock/ herd books.