Nolan Transport delivered eight loads of large square bales of haylage on the ferry to Rosslare on Thursday morning. The haulage company currently has another 30 to 40 trucks actively collecting hay in the UK for Dairygold co-op.

“Between now and the weekend, we’re hoping to have up to 80 loads collected,” the manager of Nolan Transport, Kevin Fitzharris, told the Irish Farmers Journal at the haulage company’s depot in New Ross this morning. “That’ll continue on through to next week.”

Nolan Transport with fodder imports at Rosslare this morning. \ Mary Browne

The plan is to move, in total, 120 loads. Most of the Nolan Transport fleet “would be based in Ireland and the UK. So they travel from Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton, all the way up to Kent. We’d load the trailers up in Kent, bring them to Pembroke and ship into Rosslare and then start distributing throughout Ireland from there.”

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Transport of fodder from the UK to Irish farmers takes around 24 hours, he said.

“Twenty-four to 48 hours is ideal but because of the emergency situation we’ve managed to get it in within 24 hours. So the farmers will see from now on 10 to 15 loads delivered every day.”

Dairygold’s head of agri sales, Seamus O’Mahony, was supervising the delivery and says he is happy with the quality of what has been delivered so far.

Supply chain

“What we have sourced at this point is from central UK. We have an established supply chain which we set up in 2013 when we had a shortage before, so we put our contingency plan into action over the weekend when it became clear that local fodder was becoming scarce,” O’Mahony said. “I would imagine the bales will cost €90 to €100 for this type of product, which is almost a tonne bale. There's hay and lorry loads of haylage there as well. The quality is excellent.”

Nolan Transport with fodder imports at Rosslare this morning. \ Mary Browne

The trucks are destined for Dairygold branches across Munster and O'Mahony is keeping an eye on the situation to see if more fodder will need to be ordered early next week.

“We have some come in today and more over the next two or three days to places where there is most demand. We have been assembling a list of people who need it and we will allocate it on that basis.”

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