With suckler cows at a 55-year low and local dairy herds putting more cows to beef bulls, it means that around half of all beef calves in NI are now out of dairy cows.

Data provided by the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) shows that dairy-origin beef births climbed to a record high in 2025.

In total, there were 527,246 calf births in NI last year, up marginally from the 522,231 registered in 2024.

Of the 2025 calf crop, 73% (383,357 calves) are beef bred, with 49% of these calves originating from the NI dairy herd. It is a sharp rise from just 37% in 2020.

Aberdeen Angus-sired calves continue to dominate dairy-beef registrations, accounting for 52% (84,298 head), followed by Belgian Blue-sired calves at 20%.

Pure dairy calf registrations fell by 5% to 143,889 head, with the number of dairy bull calves declining to a new low of 29,799 head, which is just over 20% of total dairy-sired births.

A total of 197,109 suckler-beef calves were registered in 2025, which is a slight decrease of 1.8% when compared with 2024. Limousin and Charolais sires continue to dominate the suckler sector, each accounting for 35% of registrations, followed by Aberdeen Angus at 15%.