March 4, 2021

Great Britain's beef registrations slightly up slightly in 2020

The British Cattle Movement Service recorded a 1% increase in Great Britain's beef calves registration in 2020 with a total of 1.906 million, 27,000 heads higher compared to data from 2019.

Although the number of registered beef calves has increased, the number of cattle available for prime beef production which included dairy males, beef males and around three quarters of beef females, diminished 0.6% at 1.911 million heads.

The use of both sexed dairy semen and beef semen in the dairy herd led to the decline of dairy male registrations. The dairy males destined for prime production were 13% lower in 2020 than it was five years ago and had most registrations replaced by beef crosses from dairy dams.

Beef crosses accounted for 74% of all beef calf registrations in 2020.

Aberdeen Angus crosses had the largest increase of 10% with a total of 374,400 heads but Limousin crosses were the largest beef breed with 380,200 new registrations despite a reduction of 2% year-on-year.

 - AHDB