Phelan said beef farmers need to exercise caution, especially when buying dairy calves.

"These will be only fit at a time when surplus cattle are most likely. It's only 12 months ago that the surplus of dairy bull beef caused all sorts of havoc with the trade. At the very least, dairy-derived calves should be castrated to give some flexibility," he said.

Increased calf births for the early weeks of 2015 coinciding with a sharp fall in live exports could result in history repeating itself, he added. There has been a 39% drop in calf exports so far in 2015.

"While the mart trade is flying at the moment for all grades of store cattle, I am concerned that the trends suggest that history is repeating itself all over again. Increased calf births and decreased live exports is a recipe for sharp price falls in 18-24 months' time," said Phelan.

"To put it context, we have exported some 4,800 fewer calves, weanlings and stores compared to this time last year and an extra 90,000 calf births have been registered, including an extra 13,000 suckler births."