Calf births from the dairy herd are running 3.2% higher than they were last year, the latest calf registration statistics from the ICBF show.

Some 91,136 dairy-bred calves were registered in the fortnight 7 April to 21 April, up from 85,300 calves born in the same two-week period of 2016.

There are now 1,049,758 dairy calves registered, an increase of 3.2% on the 1,019,514 dairy calves registered by the same point last year.

Beef calf births are running 5% behind so far in 2017.

Some 379,423 beef calves have been registered so far in 2017, compared with 400,794 in the same period last year.