Decline in number of calves born

Marts: Limousin dams edged ahead of Charolais as the most dominant beef breed which gave birth to offspring in 2006, but the Charolais breed was by far the most popular choice for sire.

A total of 2,131,262 calves were registered for 2006, slightly lower than 2005, as the number of calves born into the Irish breeding herd continued to decline.

In the overall national herd, the Computerised Movement Monitoring System has shown 996,657 Friesian cows gave birth to calves in 2006 mainly catering for the dairy herd. On the beef side, 272,023 Limousin cows gave birth with the Charolais breeding herd marginally lower at 262,107 and in fourth place Simmental at 158,767.

Looking at the sires used in the beef herd, the overall choice was dominated by Charolais and Limousin with the traditional breed Hereford and Belgian Blue at a low level. Charolais at 41.8% was the leading choice of breeders. Limousin recorded 29.6% followed by Aberdeen Angus 7.8%, and Simmental at 7.2%. Hereford sires were used on 4.6% and Belgian Blue on 4.2% of the beef breed females. Other minority breeds accounted for a combined 4.8%.

More than 70% of the calves born into dairy herds are likely to go on to beef production leading to a primary concentration by dairy herd owners of the principal dairy breed sires — Friesian and Holstein-Friesian. In the dairy herds 44.3% of females were sired to the Friesian sires, to provide sufficient replacements for the dairy herd. Cross breeding in the dairy herd, the most popular sires were Aberdeen Angus, and Hereford, followed by Limousin.

The dairy herds used Angus sires on 16.8% of the females, with Hereford sires used by 13.6% and Limousin at 9.9%.

Belgian Blue came in at 3.8% and Charolais at 3.7% underlining the concern of dairy farmers as to possible calving problems when crossing with dairy females in contrast to the dominance of the breed in the beef herd.