The total number of calf registrations up until March 15, 2024 has reached 1,015,238 head, based on data from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
There were 89,224 calves registered in the last week, with 73,734 registered to dairy dams and 15,490 to beef dams.
For the year-to-date, calves registrations are down 37,592 head, with 1,052,830 head born in the same period in 2023.
Calf registrations
The week ending March 15, saw a total of 73,734 calves registered to dairy dams, which is down 26,891 head on the same week in 2023.
For the year-to-date, 887,240 calves have been registered to dairy dams. This is also down on the same period in 2023, when 905,499 calves were registered.
Moving to the calves registered to beef dams, some 15,490, were registered in the week ending March 15 – this down 8,314 head on the same week in 2023.
A total of 127,998 calves have been registered to dams for the year-to-date, this also down on the 2023.
For the same period in 2023, some 147,331 head were registered to beef dams, meaning that they are down 19,333 for the year-to-date.
Genotpying programme
The National Genotyping Programme (NGP) is now in week 11, with 367,037 passports issued from the programme to date.
The latest update from ICBF which is up to March 12, 2024, shows that 52,000 calf samples were received in the lab in the last week.
There were 58,000 samples processed in the lab in week 11, with an average turnaround time from birth to passport being issued of 12.1 days.
In week 11 of the programme, it was taking 6.8 days on average from birth to samples being received in the lab.
This is down from week 10, when it was taking 7.2 days.
The average time a sample spent in the lab last week was 3.6 days, again, this is down from week 10 when it was taking 4.2 days.
There has been 401,351 calf samples received in the lab to date, with 377,166 calf samples genotyped to date.
In total, there has been 367,037 passports issued for NGP calves to date.