Over 500,000 births are expected on Irish dairy and beef farms in the next few months.

Calves have hit the headlines over the last few weeks, sometimes for the wrong reasons.

There are many different views about Ireland’s expanding dairy herd and calf population. While people are free to have their own views, it’s important that views are informed by facts.

The fact is that the number of calves on Irish farms that died or were born dead have fallen from 2% to 1.3% from 2011 to 2019. On calf mortality over the first 28 days, Ireland is low by international standards at around 3%. Calf mortality is a good indicator of calf welfare and Ireland is up there at the top.

There are concerns, however, that the current facilities on some farms are getting overcrowded and should calf exports falter or legislation change, we need to ask ourselves what plan B is.

Peter Varley reports on a new €140,000 build for calving and calf rearing on a Tipperary dairy farm on pages 52-53. Good calf health is central to good animal welfare and we have some calf health tips on pages 42-47.

Aidan Brennan also takes a look at what the new calf investment scheme covers, who’s eligible and what it is worth to farmers. Giving calves a good start in life is very important and we’ve all seen cases where inadequate nutrition leads to other issues.

Calf milk replacer is central to this, and on page 40 Aidan Brennan compares the different milk replacers available on the Irish market on both constituents and price.

Kieran Mailey visits a dairy calf-to-beef unit in Co Down on pages 50-51 and pops in to Omagh mart, where prices have gotten off to a very strong start.

Next week, we’ll cover automatic calf rearing machines, labour management around calf rearing, exports updates, including destinations for calves, and a dairy beef update from Teagasc and our THRIVE programme.