Positive calf exports but concern for future remain

The 2025 calving season has started on some farms with a busy three months ahead on suckler and dairy farms.

The calf trade always attracts huge interest at this time of year and given where weanling, store and finished cattle prices are there is some anticipation that calf price will increase in 2025.

In this week’s calf focus we take a look at a budget at three different calf prices and what the margin is like.

The results are interesting and show the real potential that there is within well-run dairy beef systems. Calf price is critical though and there is no point blowing the margin on expensive calves.

Calf exports also come to the fore at this time of year and Darren Carty has a very positive story on live exports in this week’s focus.

IBR

There is however concern around what will happen when we are locked out of the Netherlands calf market in 2026 on the back of IBR.

Other markets are growing but will they grow fast enough to take up the slack of losing the Netherlands market?

We visited Aidan Byrne in Co Kildare this week to see how the Tírlan/Kepak 2020 programme is working on his farm.

It’s been a positive experience for Aidan with a younger slaughter age leaving more money on his farm at the end of the year.

We also have an update from the Teagasc dairy calf to beef demonstration farm in Co Tipperary and what the 2024 performance was like on the farm.

Martin Merrick profiles a state-of-the-art calf-rearing shed and has some tips on designing and building a purpose-built calf shed.

Chris Daly from ICBF outlines what the new ICBF Mart Tracker tool is and how farmers purchasing cattle this spring can use it.