The total number of calf registrations in 2026 is running 37,400 head above last year as of Friday, February 27.

Just under 690,000 calves have been registered to date this year, versus the 652,600 in the same time period last year, according to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) database.

Looking at total suckler and dairy-dam calf registrations to date this year versus last year, both are running ahead of 2025 levels.

The total calf registrations to beef-breed dams as of February 27 this year was 84,700.

This figure marks an increase of 9,000 head on the 75,000 calves registered to beef-breed dams in the same time last year.

Looking at the number of calves registered to dairy-breed dams and the total is just under 605,300 - up by near 28,400 from the 576,900 registered in the same time period of 2025.

Calf registrations last week

As farmers will know, February and March are the two months in which the largest numbers of cows in Ireland tend to calve.

In the week ending Friday, February 27, just under 185,000 calves were registered, almost 4,000 more than the same week of last year.

Of these, over 166,000 were registered to dairy dams and 18,800 were registered to suckler-bred dams.

Record breaking week for genotyping

Earlier this week, the ICBF highlighted that the week ending Sunday, February 22 was a record-breaking week for throughput in the Genotyping Lab with a total of 118,030 samples received in the lab last week, with 116,673 samples processed during the week.

ICBF is encouraging farmers to regularly post DNA and bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) samples to avoid potential postage delays.

Farmers are also being reminded to send DNA samples only to the genotyping lab to avoid any potential delays.

Farmers are also being reminded that postal delays may also occur in the delivery of the animal passports, however this is outside of the ICBF’s control.