The spring calving season is now underway, with data from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) showing that there has been 87,856 calf registrations to date.
The data from ICBF is for calves registered up until February 2, 2024.
Although it is still early in the calving season, there has been a somewhat significant reduction in the number of calves registered on Irish farms.
Calf registration
A total of 64,157 calves have been registered to dairy dams to date, which is 40,618 head behind the same period in 2023.
For the same period in 2023, some 104,775 calves had been registered at this stage.
Beef births are also back on 2023 figures with 23,699 born so far this year, down from 32,936 – a drop of 9,237 head.
Meaning that 49,855 less calves have been registered in 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
For the same period in 2023, a total of 137,711 calves had been registered on Irish farms.
The calving season is just in the early stages, but that is a significant reduction in registrations.
The number of calves being registered should increase over the coming weeks, but it is likely that we will see another year of with a reduction in calf registrations – with nitrates having an impact on dairy cow numbers and suckler cows number falling.
2023
The data which was up until December 29, showed that there had been a reduction in calf registrations of 41,979 head.
The data from 2023 showed a slight increase in the number of calves registered to dairy dams from 1,593,641 in 2022 to 1,611,993 in 2023 a increase of 18,352 head.
However, there was a drop in the number of calves registered to beef dams from 814,942 in 2022 to 754,611.
Based on the data from ICBF this resulted in a total reduction in calf registrations of 60,331 head in a 12-month period.