Calf registrations have reached 1,424,352 head for 2025, with 102,793 calves registered in the past week, based on Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) data.

The data from ICBF applies to calves that were registered before April 11.

This time last year, some 1,461,471 head had been registered, with registrations down by 37,119 in 2025.

Registrations are behind from this time last year, as the calving start date for a lot of farmers was pushed back to a week or two into February.

This decision - accompanied with poor conception rates experienced in the early parts of the breeding season last year due to harsh cold weather, poor growth, and under condition cows - meant that calving was involuntarily pushed back for quite a few.

However, many farmers opted for this later calving date to suit their system and their grass growth curve, as the poor weather experienced in February in recent years with poor grass growth rates was enough to make the decision for them.

The later calving date allows farmers to turn cows out to grass in more favourable ground and growing conditions, potentially suiting the grass growth curve on the farm better in many cases, especially for farmers with heavier soil types.

It is expected that the number of calf registrations this year will be behind from years past as, according to the Central Statistics Office, the Irish national cattle herd was 3.3% or 217,700 head lower in December 2024 with the number of dairy cows decreasing by 2% to 1,481,300.

Based on the data, 1,213,924 calves have been registered to dairy dams, down by 29,080 head compared to 2024.

For this week (ending April 11), 62,362 calves were registered to dairy dams, which when compared to the same week last year is down by 4,659 head.

Calves registered to beef dams number 239,508 so far this year.

For the same period in 2024, some 247,547 calves had been registered to beef dams, with numbers down by 8,039 head.

For the week ending April 11, 95,602 calves were registered, which is slightly lower than 2024 registrations in the same week, which stood at 102,793 head.

In terms of the National Genotyping Programme (NGP), week 15 of 2025 has seen a steady flow of samples going through the genotyping lab, according to the ICBF.

As of April 8, 598,990 samples were received in the lab with 40,659 calf samples received last week.

41,512 calf samples were processed, and the average time from birth to sample being processed in the lab was 11.6 days.

The average time a sample spent in the lab was 3.6 days, according to the ICBF, and the average turnaround time from birth to passports being issued was up slightly at 15 days.