Increased dairy cow numbers

Of the total 1.02 million dairy births last year (Animal Identification and Movement -AIM System), the ICBF database has 87% of these calvings from 15,195 herds in the system.

Based on these trends cow numbers are expected to increase by 2.5% in 2012 and by 4.1% in 2013. ICBF predicted a 3.2pc increase in cow numbers for the past year, while the actual increase was close to 3.1pc so we can anticipate more problems with milk quota.

Dairy farmers have a great opportunity now with good cull cow prices and the availability of increased heifer replacements to upgrade their herds and minimise future problems by culling less profitable cows. Longer term the replacement heifers will produce more milk and enhance farm incomes.