The Irish Cattle Breeders Federation (ICBF) HerdPlus dairy calving statistics have been released for 2021.

Statistics are based on data collected from 14,234 dairy herds.

Calving statistics

The figures, compared to 2020, show improvements in some areas and a slight decrease in others.

The ICBF noted that: “The trends indicate a large variation between herds that achieve exceptional fertility performance (the top 10%) for each of the key performance indicators (KPIs), and those that perform below the average (the bottom 10%). ”

Calving interval

Figures show the national calving interval increased from one day to 388 days, from 387 days in 2020.

The calving interval figure has been stuck between 387 days and 390 days since 2016. The overall trend is positive, dropping from 396 days from 2012.

The Top 10% of herds have a calving interval of 364 days, which is one day better than the industry target of 365 days.

The bottom 10% of herds have a calving interval of 422 days, 57 days behind the industry target.

Six week calving rate

One area that has improved from 2020 is the average six-week calving rate, which fell from 65% to 67% in 2021.

This figure has seen a general improvement, with the richest 10% of herds increasing from 86% in 2020 to 87% in 2021.

The bottom 10% of herds also saw an improvement in this figure, from 36% to 40%.

Heifers

A key goal for the dairy herd has been to achieve 100% calved heifers between 22 and 26 months.

The current average is 74%, an improvement over last year when the figure was 71%.

The 10% of the best herds reach the figure of 100% of heifers calved between 22 and 26 months.

While the bottom 10% of herds only reach 13%, this is still a 1% increase from 2020, when the figure was 12%.

To reach the goal of 100% heifers calving between 22 and 26 months, they must reach the target weights.

If your heifers are not reaching their target weight, they should be offered preventative grazing and concentrates.