The number of farm-to-farm movements recorded in 2020 exceeded mart movements for the first time since marts became the dominant platform for trading livestock. Mart throughput fell by 138,448 to 1,530,690 head, while the number of farm-to-farm movements increased by 335,113 head to reach 1,636,447 head.

The significant change in movements, recorded in the recently released AIM Bovine Statistics Report 2020, stemmed from the coronavirus pandemic greatly curtailing mart throughput in the first half of 2020.

The number of cattle traded at marts in February, March and April fell by 293,354 head and while throughput was above normal levels for the summer months, as detailed in Figure 1, it failed to fully compensate for business lost earlier in the year.

In the same three-month period farm-to-farm movements increased by 173,927 head.

Friesian-bred cattle dominated farm-to-farm movements in 2020 with 605,214 head involved.

The main categories of stock traded were calves and milking stock. There were over 200,000 dairy male calves aged up to six months traded farm-to-farm, while there were 136,037 female stock aged over 30 months and 65,133 aged between 18 and 24 months.

Farm-to-farm sales have increased in line with dairy herd expansion with movements rising by over 300,000 head over a 10-year period

Angus (288,684), Hereford (214,560) and Limousin (201,801)-bred animals also featured strongly. In terms of mart movements, Limousin was the most common breed traded at 360,912 head. This was closely followed by Charolais (308,758), Angus (249,018) and Hereford (191,096) breeds.

Farm-to-farm sales have increased in line with dairy herd expansion with movements rising by over 300,000 head over a 10-year period, leaving aside 2020.

If figures for 2020 were included it would leave the increase at about 600,000 head, but it is likely that the number of farm-to-farm movements will fall well back in 2021, given marts have revitalised their business despite ongoing coronavirus restrictions with online trading now a solid feature of trading livestock.

Cork dominating dairy calf births

Cork is well and truly the dominant county in terms of dairying, with a massive 377,610 births recorded to dairy cows.

The next closest county is Tipperary with 173,895 births registered to dairy cows. This is also well ahead of the national average figure with only two other counties recording births from dairy cows exceeding 100,000 head – Limerick with 117,828 births and Kerry with 100,317. Leitrim had the fewest births to dairy cows at 2,141 head.

On the suckler side of the house, Galway recorded the highest number of birth registrations to beef-bred cows at 91,789 head. This was followed by Clare with 66,232 calf registrations, while Cork also features highly on the suckler front with 65,061 registrations to beef-bred cows.

Angus second most common breed of sire

The Angus breed overtook the Limousin breed as the second most popular sire breed recorded in 2020.

Friesian births recorded the greatest growth, increasing by 14,004 head to 762,097

At 408,283 head, the number of calves registered to an Angus sire increased by 12,842 head, while the number of calves registered to a Limousin sire fell marginally by 2,177 head to 398,182. Friesian births recorded the greatest growth, increasing by 14,004 head to 762,097.

Meanwhile, the Charolais breed was the fourth most common sire type in 2020 (up 3,345 head to 304,694), followed by Hereford (up 6,348 head to 265,310). These five breeds are a long way ahead of the chasing pack, with 71,440 calves registered to Simmental sires, 44,347 to Belgian Blue, 36,662 Jersey-sired calves, (which incidentally was a reduction of 7,340 on 2019 levels), while the Aubrac breed got over the 20,000 mark (20,160) reflecting greater usage in dairy herds with a 4,355 head increase.

Live cattle imports: numbers rise by over 1,100

There were 8,818 cattle (up 1,122 head) imported live throughout 2020.

Some 5,501 head, or 62% of total imports, came from the UK.

Of the cattle coming from the UK 3,227 were imported for direct slaughter.

There were 1,373 animals imported from Germany

These were mainly cull cows with 4,691 of the total figure being females and 3,003 head of those going for direct slaughter aged over 30 months.

Furthermore, the breed breakdown of animals slaughtered shows 2,607 head of Friesian breeding.

There were 1,373 animals imported from Germany (up by 940 head) and 812 imported from Austria (up 354 head).

Firm trade

These were mainly females and are likely to be predominately dairy animals with a firm trade emerging in recent years for Fleckvieh animals, in particular.

Meanwhile, there were 644 animals from the Netherlands (up 526 head) and 258 from Denmark (down 28 head) with these again dominated by dairy animals.

There were 144 animals imported from Belgium (including eight males), 77 from France (including 27 males), and one from Luxembourg.

The cohort from Belgium and France likely include significant numbers of beef bred pedigree animals.

On-farm deaths increase by 11,319 head

The number of on-farm cattle deaths recorded in 2020 increased by 11,319 head, or about 5.2%, to 228,257. This equates to just 3.4% of the national herd figure for the end of 2020. It excludes stillborn animals which also increased by 10% to reach 37,927.

When combined, the number of on-farm deaths of calves (stillborn and up to six weeks of age) was recorded at 88,322 head or 3.7% of all births registered.

Not surprisingly, the number of on-farm deaths was greatest in the period from February to May with 117,958 deaths occurring during this timeframe.

The deaths can be split into 143,583 females and 84,674 males.

For stillborn calves there were 21,407 calves born to a beef sire and 16,520 to a dairy sire

Delving deeper into the analysis, there were 51,197 deaths defined as the progeny of a beef-bred bull and 63,408 female deaths sired by a beef breed. The highest single figure within this was 19,995 beef-sired females over 48 months of age.

Regarding the progeny from a dairy sire there were 33,477 male deaths and 80,175 female deaths with half of this figure accounting for females aged in excess of 48 months.

For stillborn calves there were 21,407 calves born to a beef sire (12,543 males and 8,864 females) and 16,520 to a dairy sire (8,770 male and 7,750 female).

Friesian calves dominate live exports

It will not come as a surprise that Friesian animals were the main breed of animal exported live in 2020 with these animals comprising 125,455 head of the total figure of 265,652.

Within this, there were 86,318 head aged less than six weeks of age.

Angus-bred cattle were next up at 57,770 head and, again, the majority of these were calves, with 27,594 less than six weeks of age.

There were also 30,135 Limousin cattle exported live followed by 18,000 Charolais-bred animals and 11,861 Hereford-bred animals. The list is completed by 7,010 Belgian Blue-sired animals, 4,376 Simmental and 11,045 of the other remaining breeds.