More than 2,000 in-calf heifers were loaded onto the Shorthorn Express livestock carrier in Bellview Port in Co Waterford last night as part of a consignment of heifers being shipped to Algeria by the Westmeath based livestock exporter David Clarke.

Clarke runs the cows.ie company and is shipping his second load of heifers to Algeria having sent the first load out in January 2024.

The heifers are all pedigree Holstein Friesian in-calf heifers and were all Irish bred and purchased over the last 12 months.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal Clarke said: “We were delighted to be able to work with the Irish Holstein Friesian Association in assembling this load of heifers."

Behind the scenes work

"A lot of work takes place behind the scenes for such a large load of heifers to be exported and I’d also like to thank the Department of Agriculture for their help and co-operation in getting the load of heifers safely loaded and away to their final destination in Africa."

The boat journey will take just over four days and the heifers will be unloaded and brought to dairy farms in Algeria.

"We have a great team behind us at cows.ie from purchasers to the people back at home looking after the stock. A lot of these heifers were contract reared on farms over the last 12 months so it was a big team effort. We are hopeful of putting another load together in 2025. The heifers we need to have the pedigree paperwork so we would encourage dairy farmers to grade up their herds in order to make them eligible for purchase,” Clarke said.