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The picture above shows the overall scene at Waterford Port last Thursday when cattle export company Quinn International Livestock loaded a consignment of breeding cattle on the Sarah for delivery to buyers in Turkey.
The animals had completed a 30-day quarantine as required under the veterinary protocol in place between the EU and Turkey. The order included approximately 1,900 breeding heifers and 55 pedigree breeding bulls. Among the heifers were 650 Limousins, 700 Charolais, 400 Angus and 200 Belgian Blues.
When the ship arrives at port it is first loaded with hay, cattle nuts and drinking water. The animals will receive 5kg of nuts per head per day. On top of the boat we can see bags of sawdust bedding for the pens.
The cattle are then moved from the approved holding yard to the port in specialist livestock trucks.
Loading is a busy operation that takes five or six hours. It went well and the Sarah is now sailing for the Turkish port of Izmir and is scheduled to dock on Tuesday 6 February.
The cattle pens are laid out on six decks and, as can be seen, there is plenty of ventilation and good natural daylight.
The Sarah is a specialist livestock boat sailing under a Lebanese flag. It has been inspected and approved by the Department of Agriculture to carry cattle from Ireland and made a number of trips from Ireland to Turkey in 2017. This was its first trip in 2018.
The boat is rated with a deadweight of 1,600. This is the maximum weight it can carry to include fuel and crew as well as cargo, which in this case is livestock, feed and water.
Cattle board at the centre of the boat. The livestock trucks reverse up to a pens and a covered walkway, seen here.
Export of live cattle is tightly regulated by the Department of Agriculture at all stages to ensure full welfare and health standards as well as traceability. The animals have been supervised on the holding farm during the month-long quarantine period.
When the boat arrived at port and was got ready, the cattle were then loaded on trucks in the export yard.
Before leaving the yard the trucks were locked with a tamper proof seal by a Department of Agriculture official.
Down the road, at Waterford Port, the truck has arrived and a Department official is checking the seal. He will then give permission for the cattle to be unloaded.
The cattle are first unloaded from the trucks into a woodchip holding pen.
These Angus heifers then walked from the pen into a chute and on into the walkway to board the boat.
Next up was a pen of these red Limousins.
The heifers enter the boat and are put in pens, staying in their original groups.
The loading operation is also supervised by the Department of Agriculture, as seen here. Animals are inspected while boarding the boat for identification tags, passports and to check all are healthy.
Another Department official inspects the boat to see everything is in order, to ensure that pens are clean and bedded and that sufficient, good quality hay and meals are on board for the trip.
Job done. Exporter Damien Quinn is happy that all animals have safely loaded in good health.
The boat's crew are experienced livestock handlers. They will feed, water and bed the cattle over the journey. On arrival the buyers will scrutinise all stock to check they have arrived in good health. The importers will then supply the cattle onwards to Turkish farmers.
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