There is likely to be plenty of ferry capacity for getting Irish calves over to EU markets next spring.
Irish Ferries plans to operate three sailings per week from Dublin to Cherbourg after mid-February on its new boat, the WB Yeats.
It hopes to get Department of Agriculture approval to carry up to 10 livestock trucks on each sailing.
At present, Irish Ferries sails just once a week from Dublin to Cherbourg, on Saturdays, carrying 10 livestock trucks on the Epsilon.
The sailings from Dublin will be additional to the existing three sailings per week from Rosslare to Cherbourg operated by rival company Stena and which have veterinary approval to carry livestock trucks.
Export bottleneck
However, calf exporters are still facing a bottleneck on exports because of inadequate lairage at Cherbourg for resting and feeding calves.
The two approved lairages at the French port have capacity for 12 truck loads per day – the equivalent of 4,000 calves.
The deciding issue now is whether Irish Ferries will operate its sailings from Dublin on the same or alternate days as the Rosslare sailings.
Alternate days will spread out demand for lairage at Cherbourg.
Irish Ferries has not yet finalised its schedule.
Calf exporters warn that if there is a bottleneck at Cherbourg then this will affect the peak export period of mid-February to mid-March, where they could send up to 20 trucks on a sailing, and that calf prices could be at their lowest in these weeks.
SHARING OPTIONS