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Q1 dairy births see year on year drop
Tuesday, 10 May 2022
BCMS calf registrations to dairy dams for the first quarter of 2022 (January – March) were at 402,377, down 0.3% from Q1 2021, despite March registrations passing 152,000, the highest for at least ten years[1].
The last time we saw a drop in Q1 registrations was back in 2017, at this time the milk price was low which discouraged farmers from wanting to increase production or expand their herds. Although current milk prices are high, so are costs of production and these are not expected to reduce anytime soon, therefore the current climate also does not encourage farmers to increase production. Currently, GB milk production is forecasted to fall between 0.8% - 5.3% year on year in the 2022/23 season.
Q1 2022 registrations are 6% higher than the 5-year average, a demonstration that more farmers are favouring block calving patterns. We estimate that this has caused the spring milk production peak (April and May) to increase by 1.2% a month compared with 2016.
[1] Records go back to 2011
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