According to the latest figures from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), calf registrations are still down by over 54,000 head in comparison to last year as we enter the last weeks of 2025.

These figures account for all calves registered in Ireland up until the the week ending Sunday, November 28.

As of that date, over 2.2 million calves had been registered, sitting at a total of 2,215,634.

This is a large contrast to the 2,270,320 calves registered in the same timeframe of 2024.

According to ICBF, just over 665,000 of these registration were considered beef calves, while dairy accounted for the other 1,550,230 registrations.

The drop in calf registrations can be attributed to a considerable deduction in beef births, with suckler-bred calf registrations down by just over 23,000 head (23,491) for the year.

5,049 beef calves were registered in the last week of November, 422 less than the same week in 2024.

Meanwhile, the situation in the dairy sector is no different, with the number of calves registered to dairy cows down by more than 31,000 (31,195) head.

The number of dairy calves born last week was 5,286, down from 6,058 for the same time period in 2024, which can be attributed to issues such as less dairy farmers winter milking and more farmers using sexed semen.

Suckler and dairy numbers declining

Suckler-bred calf registrations have being steadily dropping over the last decade, with no sign of the drop levelling out yet.

Unfortunately for the sector, more and more suckler farmers are retiring, while a lot of those who are not yet retired would no longer be considered 'spring chickens' and may not be farming as many cows as they used to.

A lot of the younger beef community have also switched to dairying or contract rearing in the last few years, which has also added to the decline.

With beef prices looking steady, numbers should flatten out next spring in terms of beef calves born as farmers finally get rewarded for the work that goes into producing a weanling.

However, there are many more issues affecting the drop in calf numbers, ranging from rules and legislation to succession and innovation.