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Aberdeen Angus remains the most popular beef sire in NI with 59,455 (25.5%) calf births registered to dairy and suckler dams during the first half of this year.
That figure is up 1,071 on the same period in 2021, when Angus accounted for 25.2% of beef sired calves.
Limousin is the second most common beef sire, with 57,237 births registered during the first half of 2022, down from 57,606 last year. Charolais is the third with 50,401 births, compared to 51,270 in 2021.
However, while Angus was the most common sire choice across all beef calf registrations, Limousin and Charolais still dominate in terms of calves from sucklers.
A total of 49,409 Limousin calves were born to suckler cows in the six months to the end of June, up from 48,211 in 2021.
Second
Charolais is second with 47,670 births in 2022, down from 48,626 last year.
Angus is third with 21,357 births from suckler dams, marginally lower than the 21,529 from 2021.
In total, calf births registered to a suckler cow from January to June stood at 153,930, a 0.7% increase on the 152,871 registered in 2021.
Dairy births
Across the dairy herd, there were 150,886 calves registered in the first half of 2022, of which 79,286 were beef-sired with 71,600 out of a dairy bull.
Angus was the most common beef sire with 38,098 births, followed by Belgian Blue on 12,835.
Hereford is at 10,114, with Limousin sired calves totalling 7,828.
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