It appears the peak of calf numbers has passed. After four weeks where the price data to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) came from the sales of close to or over 20,000 calves, this week’s table features prices of 14,901 calves.
While still ahead of 2025, calf prices are heading south across all the main breeds on offer.
Angus-crosses maintain the top spot when it comes to supply as they accounted for 44% of all calves on offer, a lift of 1% on a year ago.
Prices have taken a hit again, with bulls back €35/head to €415/head this week.
This is up €88/head on last year’s price and €283/head above 2024 prices for the same week.
Two years ago, you could buy a three- to six-week-old Angus-cross heifer for €99/head, while this past week they changed hands at €299/head, a reduction of €44/head on last week.
Hereford-cross calves made up 20% of all on offer, a reduction of 5% on the same week last year.
A three- to six-week-old bull calf averaged €461/head last week, back €27/head on the previous week, while heifers were down €38/head to €336/head.
This time last year, Hereford-cross bulls sold for €362/head, while heifers made €273/head and two years ago they averaged €173/head and €107/head respectively.
One in every five calves traded last week was a Friesian bull, which is an increased supply compared with the same time in 2025 when they made up 14% of calves sold.
While their prices haven’t escaped the downward turn, they are reducing at a slower pace. Last week, the average price for a three- to six-week-old Friesian bull calf was €256/head, a decrease of €7/head compared with the last week of March.
That’s €99/head above the first week of April in 2025 when they averaged €157/head, while, for the corresponding week in 2024, they averaged €47/head.
EU prices
Irish prices are €25/head behind for dairy-sired calves at €266, while there’s a gap of €40/head between the EU average price for beef-sired calves and the average here of €446.
Dairy-sired calves in Germany fell by €49/head to €284/head.
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