The total figure for calves registered to beef dams has now surpassed the 200,000 mark, according to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) database.

29,573 calves were registered to beef dams during the past week, boosting the total figure up to 214,040 as of Friday, April 3.

The registrations for the week are very similar to the figures from the same week last year, but total beef registrations are still up 13,865 on 2025 figures.

Calf registrations

101,812 calves in total were registered in the last week alone according to the ICBF database.

That is down by 2,325 on the same time frame as last year. However, the total number of Irish calves registered in 2026 is still running more than 33,000 head above last year's figures as of Friday, April 3.

1,344,496 calves have been registered to date this year, versus the 1,310,508 which were registered in the same time period last year.

During the week, 72,239 calves were registered to dairy dams, which is considerably back on last week's figure of 94,118.

However, the the total amount of dairy calves registered has now reached 1,130,456, which is 20,123 more than that registered by the same period in 2025.

NGP

Despite registration figures slipping back, especially as spring calving wraps up on dairy farms, National Genotyping Programme (NGP) labs are still busy.

According to ICBF, 62,467 calf samples were received in the lab last week, which is up from the 57,391 the week before.

Meanwhile, 70,462 samples were processed in the lab, which is also significantly up on the week prior when only 38,499 calf samples were processed.

ICBF confirmed that the average time samples spent in the lab was still 3.7 days.

Despite this, the average turnaround time from birth to the passport being issued has increased even further to 16.5 days.

However, ICBF also stated that it is now taking an average of 9.4 day to get the sample in the lab after the calf is born.