The numbers of both suckler and dairy-bred calves registered to date this year has increased when compared to the same time of last year.

According to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), a total of over 1.8 million (1,826,200) calves have been registered as of Friday, May 22.

This figure is up by 28,772 head on the same time last year.

Looking at dairy (dam) calf registrations, a total of 1.4 million (1,403,612) calves have been registered to dairy breed dams this year.

The number of calves registered to dairy cows this year is up by 15,503 head on the same time last year.

After several years of continuous decline, the number of suckler calf registrations has increased slightly this year.

Just over 422,500 (422,588) suckler-bred calves have been registered to date this year. This figure marks an increase of 13,269 head on the number of suckler calves registered in the same time last year.

Strong weanling and cattle prices achieved in 2025 likely played a role in the rise in the number of calves registered to suckler cows this year.

Calf births by sire type

The numbers of calves sired by beef bulls has also been increasing in recent years.

This is due to a levelling-off in dairy cow numbers as well as increased use of sexed semen on dairy cows.

Data from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) shows that in the first four months of this year, 1.18 million (1,175,946) calves were registered to beef-breed bulls versus 561,771 calves registered to dairy-breed bulls.

Looking at the calves born to beef-breed bulls, almost 609,000 head were female calves and over 567,000 were bull calves.

On the dairy-sire side, almost 342,000 calves born to dairy-breed bulls were female and just over 220,000 were bull calves.