Dairy artificial insemination (AI) usage has increased on farms this year, which should recover the number of dairy heifer calves born in 2026.

Concerning data had emerged earlier this year regarding the number of dairy heifer calves born in 2025.

As of April 1, the number of calves registered from the dairy herd was 16,000 lower than the same period last year, which was a decline of 1.4%, according to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).

However, the most concerning trend was the drop in dairy female calf registrations, which was down significantly - by 38,000 compared to the same period last year.

This amounts to a 11.5% drop in 2025, which will have a knock-on effect on replacement heifers available in 2027.

The number of first calved heifers recorded by April 1 was nearly 25,000 fewer than in 2024, which represented a 9% drop.

However, ICBF data shows that many farmers have realised this threat to the national herd and potential scarcity of breeding dairy females as dairy AI usage and sexed semen usage increased significantly.

This drop in dairy females being born was due to a consistent drop in dairy AI serves for the last three years, as 2022 saw a 12% drop, 2023 saw a 7% drop, and 2024 a 14% drop.

The number of total AI serves on the dairy herd amounted to 1,279,357 serves, which is an increase of 72,818 serves from 2024.

Dairy AI this year increased by 14%, which is a recovery of the 14% drop witnessed in 2024. There were 719,787 dairy AI serves as of August 1, 2025.

Beef AI on the dairy herd actually dropped by 2% in 2025 compared with 2024 after consistently having an increase in usage over the last five years.

It is another positive news story for sexed semen usage as 2025 saw another drastic increase in its uptake, with 852 more herds using sexed semen this year.

There was 213,493 sexed semen serves so far in 2025, which is a 26% increase from 2024.

Of the 1,279,357 serves to the dairy herd, 56% of them were dairy AI serves, 44% were beef serves, and 30% of the dairy AI serves were sexed semen serves.

The trends in AI usage in the national herd from 2019-2025 as per ICBF is as follows:

There has been a significant turn-around in the make-up of the national herd over the last five years and sexed semen usage continues an upward trend.

According to ICBF, these trends are expected to continue over the next five years.

ICBF believes that the dairy AI usage this year will recover the number of dairy heifer calves born on farm for the spring of 2026 back to 2021 levels due to overall dairy AI usage and in particular the increased uptake of sexed semen, which does not require the same number of straws per heifer calf born.

ICBF also told Agriland that it would like to see more sexed semen used and enough dairy AI to maintain/grow the national herd.

Addressing the drop in beef AI usage on the dairy herd, the ICBF would like to see more beef AI used also, as the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) from AI is higher than stock bulls, resulting in higher genetic merit calves.

The strong uptake in dairy AI and sexed semen this year is encouraging, as farmers reacted strongly to a potential shortage in heifers born earlier this year and opted to breed a more comfortable/surplus number of potential heifer calves.