What happens to male dairy calves that are born in Ireland?

All calves born in Ireland must be registered and tagged. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine provide comprehensive data on all calf births, movement, farming destination (beef/dairy), slaughter records, export and on-farm deaths, through their Animal Identification Movement system. Based on their 2017 report 2,350,160 calves were born of which 386,462 (16.44 %) were male dairy calves (calves born to a dairy bull).

The rest were females and beef calves. Most female dairy calves are reared to join the milking herd, with only a very small number of males reared as dairy bulls. While some male dairy calves are reared as beef, more are exported to continental Europe for veal production. The value of a male calf is dependent on its breed with male Jersey calves considered to be of lowest value (these accounted for less than 1 % of calves born in 2017).

Extra Information:

Initiatives such as the Economic Breeding Index are in place to help farmers select the best cattle for breeding purposes, where ultimately, selective breeding will produce more profitable herds. In addition, the use of ‘sexed semen’, can increase the number of female calves born, with approximately 90 % of successful pregnancies resulting in a female calf. These initiatives have the potential to decrease the number of young male calves exported for veal.