Despite favourable research trial performance and a high profile, the number of Irish dairy farmers using Jersey sires on their herds remains low. In fact, just 2.2% of dairy calves born in the first two months of this year was sired by a Jersey bull. This is down from last year, when 2.5% of January/February born calves in the dairy herd were Jerseys.

The impact of Jersey bull calves on beef from the dairy herd perhaps attracts too much attention – in 2015, just one in every 44 dairy calves was sired by Jersey, down from 1 in 39 last year. Furthermore, these figures are for the first two months of the year, when the majority of dairy replacements are born.

If we assume a 50:50 male:female ratio, it means that there were less than 6,000 Jersey bull calves born in the first two months of the year – not very significant in the context of over 2 million calf births per year from the beef and dairy cow herds.

Of course, as the Dealer has reported, not all Jersey bull calves are accurately registered, with some marked as Limousin or Angus on their passports!

The figures on Jersey births were calculated by the Irish Farmers Journal using Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) data. It shows a major rise in early calving - the number of Irish dairy cows calving in January was 13% higher than last year, while February calvings jumped by 19%.

Holstein Friesian remain the dominant breed, at 73% of January/February calvings. Hereford and Angus are growing rapidly, with Jan/Feb births sired by these breeds up 43% from last year.

The availability of a wide selection of high Economic Breeding Index (EBI) black and white bulls is probably the main reason why Jersey have not made a greater impact.