GB calf registrations: Births to dairy dams ease in Q2 2024

The latest BCMS data showed births to dairy dams in Q2 2024 have declined year-on-year by 2.1% to total 298,000 head. Birth registrations were up 3.6% in May, year on year, however this was counteracted by declines in both April and June, by 0.5% and 9.5% respectively.

For the first six months of 2024, total registrations out of the dairy herd are back 0.5% year on year, totalling 704,000 head. Looking back into 2023, we saw a period of easing milk prices through the summer and autumn, the time when breeding decisions would have been made for the cows that have now calved in early 2024. In addition to this, producers faced difficulties with weather in the latter part of 2023 and into 2024, with above average rainfall causing significant challenges on farm. These weather challenges, alongside concerns about profitability, especially over the autumn and winter months, may have caused producers to focus breeding to only the most productive cows in the herd, in an effort to reduce cattle numbers but maintain milk volumes.

Furthermore, AHDB’s recent producer survey estimated a loss of 370 producers between October 2023 and April 2024. Again, the challenges of wet weather, financial pressure and increased environmental regulations are likely incentives for some producers that exited the industry over the winter months. We would expect that this decline in producers would also have contributed to lowered registrations out of the dairy herd. Whilst significant numbers of cows were likely sold on to other producers, contributing to consolidation of the industry, inevitably some cows, likely older and/or less productive, would have been lost out of the milking herd as herds disbanded.

Sign up to receive the latest information from AHDB.