The total number of calf registrations on Irish farms has surpassed two million for 2026, according to Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) data.

Based on the data, a total of 2,012,929 calves have been registered on Irish farms as of Friday, July 10.

This is up from the same period in 2025, where 1,979,944 calves had been registered.

The 2 million mark was not hit until the week ending July 25 in 2025.

Calf registrations blew past the one-million mark back in March of this year, with 117,234 calves registered that week alone (week ending March 20).

There was a total of 2,254,133 calves registered on Irish farms by the end of 2025, meaning that if we are to stay on par with last year's figures, there should be only 250,000 more calves to enter the system over the next five and a half months.

Calf registrations

For 2026, calf registrations peaked in the last week of February, with 184,904 registrations recorded in the week ending February 27.

Fast-forward to the week ending Friday, July 10, where there was a total of 19,221 calves registered on Irish farms, up from the 16,850 registrations recorded during the same week in 2025.

A total of 5,969 calves were registered to dairy dams during the week, bringing this year's total up to 1,472,717.

That figure is running just over 18,000 head above last year's dairy registrations, which was sitting at 1,454,608 in the same week.

13,252 calves were registered to beef dams during the week, which saw the total figure for sucker registrations rise to 540,212.

This too is up by 14,876 head in comparison to last year, when registrations sat at 525,336.

The data shows that just under one in four calves born so far this year have been registered to beef dams, or just shy of 27% of all calves.