Latest figures from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation’s (ICBF) live statistics show that there have been over 1.2 million calves registered to date this year.
Of these, 1.07 million calves have been registered to dairy-breed dams and just under 184,000 of these were registered to beef-breed dams.
The total number of calf registrations in Ireland as of Friday March 29, stands at 1,259,932, according to the ICBF figures.
The number of calf registrations to date this year is 25,574 head below the 1,285,506 calves registered in the same time period of last year.
There has been a slight drop in the number of dairy calf registrations this year with 1,075,945 calves registered to dairy dams as of March 29, down 4,515 head from the 1,080,460 head of calves registered to dairy dams in the same time period of last year.
The number of suckler-bred calves born to date this year has fallen more significantly with 183,987 calves registered to beef-breed dams this year, down 21,059 head on the 205,046 head of calves registered to beef-breed dams in the same time period last year.
Calves registered last week
Looking exclusively at the week ending Friday, March 29, the total number of calf registrations stood at 82,806. This figure is back 26,343 head from the 109,149 calves registered in the same week of last year.
A total of 61,808 head of calves were registered to dairy dams last week, back 17,600 head on the 79,437 calves registered to dairy dams in the same week of last year.
20,988 calves were registered to beef dams last week, back 8,724 head on the number of calves registered to beef-breed dams in the equivalent week last year.
Genotyping update
The ICBF has said that 448,123 calves have been genotyped to date under the National Genotyping Programme (NGP).
The programme, administered by ICBF, is based on a cost-sharing model between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), the beef and dairy industry and participating farmers.
The latest update from the ICBF, covering up to Tuesday March 26, shows that a further 35,659 samples were received in the lab in the last week.
There were 33,753 calf samples processed in that period with the average turnaround time from birth to passport being issued now standing at 12.8 days.
This is down from the average turnaround time of 13.1 days in the previous week.
Commenting on the data, the ICBF said: “As we head towards the final leg of the 2024 spring-calving season, farmers are sending off samples less regularly than at the peak”.
The average time from birth to a sample being received in the lab was 8.6 days, while the average time a sample spent in the lab last week was 4.2 days.
The ICBF said that in total 461,675 calf samples have been received in the lab, with 438,392 passports issued for NGP calves to date.