Friday, March 29, 2024

Ireland poised to expand its dairy herd

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There has been a significant increase in the number of dairy calves born in Ireland this year.
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Data released by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation show 901,519 dairy calves have been registered this year, 10.7% more than at the same time in 2014.

Ireland has plans to increase its dairy production by 50% by 2020. The increase in the number of dairy calves indicates the industry is responding to the challenge to increase its milk production. The additional 87,000 head will go someway towards the increase in dairy stock required to meet the milk production objectives but the industry will need to keep expanding at least this fast over the next few years to reach this objective.

Ireland's agriculture and food development authority, Tegasac, previously suggested that in order to met its milk production goals the Irish dairy industry would need to increase the number of cows in milk by 3% per annum while a further 2% annual gain could be achieved by higher yields.

The same report indicated that the Irish national dairy herd would need to increase to 1.35 million cows. Figures published by The Irish Farmers Association show that in 2014 dairy cow numbers in Ireland stood at 1.14 million.

 

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