Calf registrations have now reached 314,424 head for 2024, with 96,628 registered in the last week based on Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) data.
The data from ICBF applies to calves that were registered before February 16.
This time last year, some 434,763 head had been registered, which means that based on the data, registrations are down 120,339 compared to last year.
Calf registrations
Looking at the data, 268,888 calves have been registered to dairy dams – this is down 104,442 head on 2023.
For this week, 87,906 calves were registered to dairy dams, which when compared to the same week last year is down 62,588.
Some of the decrease may be due to the National Genotyping Programme, which is currently taking 12.5 days for calves to be registered from tagging.
Moving to the calves registered to beef dams, there have been 45,536 calves registered so far this year.
For the same period in 2023 some 61,433 calves had been registered to beef dams, which means that numbers are down 15,897 head.
For the week ending February 16, a total of 96,628 calves were registered to dairy and beef dams – which when compared to the same period in 2023 is down 68,608 head.
For the same period in 2023, some 165,236 had been registered to dairy and beef dams.
Genotyping
The National Genotyping Programme is in its first year, and as of February 13, more than 66,000 animal passports were issued via the programme.
ICBF has stated that the programme is “progressing well” and that on average, it is taking 12.5 days from birth to receiving the animal’s passport.
Postage delays have been noted as an issue in the receiving of samples to the labs.
However, in the programme’s information handbook, ICBF said that including postage, the whole process – from tagging to the issuing of animal passports, can take on average 10 to 12 days.