Over the last number of years, there has been a significant push to increase the number and quality of calves leaving the dairy herd and entering dairy-beef systems.
The national dairy herd has now reached a natural peak, with the expansion slowing down.
A number of new technologies have been introduced in recent years to improve the quality of the calves leaving dairy herds and entering into the beef system.
These include the introduction of the dairy beef index (DBI), sexed semen and the commercial beef value (CBV).
The adoption of these technologies has been embraced by many dairy farmers, but what impact is that having on the trends in calf births?
Dairy-beef
Data from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), shows that the number of beef sired calves born to dairy dams surpassed the number of dairy sired calves born to dairy dams in 2023.
There were 74,493 more beef sired calves (849,044) born in 2023 to dairy dams compared to calves born to dairy sires (774,551).
The data also shows that there were 69,581 fewer male dairy calves born in 2023 compared to 2022, and 67,000 fewer dairy male calves born in 2023 compared to dairy females.
This means that 54% of the dairy sired calves in 2023 were female and 46% were male.
According to the ICBF, the use of sexed semen has played an very important role in this move, and early indications are showing an even better picture for 2024, with only 41% of dairy calves being male.
The graph below shows the trend in births to dairy females based on the sire. It shows a steady growth in the number of beef sired calves and a somewhat sharp decline in the number of calves sired by dairy males from 2022 to 2023.
The ICBF said that this shows how dairy farmers have embraced the messages of only breeding from their highest economic breeding index (EBI) females and using high DBI sires on the lower EBI cows from the start of the breeding season.
Source: ICBF
ICBF believes that this trend is likely to continue in 2024.
Based on the artificial inseminations (AI) for dairy cows in 2022 and 2023, there are about 80,000 less dairy serves, which translates to less dairy calves on the ground this spring.
Year Bull type AI Dairy cows 2022 Dairy sire 916,298 762,791 2023 Dairy sire 834,286 714,996 2022 Beef sire 459,437 343,215 2023 Beef sire 571,415 423,826
Source: ICBF
ICBF says that, dairy farmers are using the latest technologies, namely sexed semen, EBI and DBI – to help breed more profitable replacements, while at the same time increasing the quantity and quality of beef from the dairy herd.