Almost 30,000 male calves slaughtered at 10 days old last year

Nearly 30,000 male Irish calves were slaughtered last year before they reached two weeks of age - because they were deemed almost worthless.

Nearly 30,000 calves were slaughtered last year after they reached ten days of age, according to RTÉ’s Ear to the Ground.

The national broadcaster’s flagship farming show revealed that last spring approximately 1.5 million dairy calves were born on Irish farms – but about half of those or 750,000 were male calves.