The Department Of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has revealed the key statistics on the numbers of farmers rearing calves and the number that quit rearing calves in 2026.

From January to June of this year, a total of 578,100 calves aged six weeks-of-age or under that were born to a dairy-breed dam were traded into another herd and remained in that herd.

These calves were traded into a total of 20,690 destination herds, where they currently remain.

An average of 28 calves was purchased by each of these herds in 2026, on par with 2025 but up from 2024 when the average was 26 calves.

In the first half of 2025, 646,575 calves of six weeks-of-age or under were traded into 22,914 calf-rearing herds, while 592,966 calves were traded into 22,538 calf-rearing herds in 2024.

In the first six months of 2026, 6,227 herds moved calves into their herds that did not move in calves in 2025.

8,451 herds that moved calves into their herds in 2025 did not move in calves in 2026. 

High attrition rates remain

Essentially, what these figures indicate is that almost 21,000 farmers bought dairy-beef calves this year.

The average number of calves bought by each of these dairy-beef farmers this year was 28 calves.

A total of 6,227 farmers bought in calves to rear this year that had not done so in the same time period of 2025.

Surprisingly, 8,451 farmers that bought calves in 2025 did not buy calves this year, confirmation that the high attrition rates in the number of farmers rearing calves remains.

The number of farmers buying calves to rear this year is below 2025 and 2024 levels.

However, while the number of farmers that bought calves to rear in the first six months of 2025 had increased on 2024 figures, it has fallen this year.