Live cattle exports are recovering from the low levels of 2016. It’s welcome given the rise in cattle numbers.
The weanling year is only halfway through.
But exports should rise by 50% to reach 40,000 head. So far, these increased exports are going to one market: Turkey.
Weanling exports to the continent are just starting and no huge change in numbers is expected.
Three exporters have sent cattle to Turkey since it opened last year: James Mallon, Purcells and John Hallissey. Another two or three are looking to get involved. That country needs to import a lot of livestock to feed its population – Turkish farmers are selling their finished cattle for the equivalent of €8/kg carcase weight, and higher.
The live export business is not for the faint of heart. It’s hard to go collecting money when the buyer is in another country. Non-EU markets are particularly risky with high up-front costs. Often, an exporter won’t get full payment. Government contracts can be the trickiest of all. Payments have been lost or delayed because of war, military coups and disease outbreaks. The further away the market and the bigger the order, the higher the risk.
Those in the business love the thrills and find it hard to quit. They take pride in sending healthy, well-bred stock to their foreign customers.
Irish cattle are exported under the highest ever standards of animal health and welfare. Exporters struggle to keep up with these rising standards – and complain about the paperwork. But they know high standards are what will keep the business sustainable in the long run.
Below are the main weanling exporters active in 2017.
Currently the most active live cattle exporter, Purcell Brothers has shipped close to 15,000 weanlings to Turkey in 2017 under a 20,000-head contract. The firm has lairage at Waterford Port and spent significant sums of money upgrading it in 2017, for the Turkish contract.
This contract is with ESK, which is the state-owned Meat and Milk Commission. It is operating as a central buyer with the aim of obtaining feeder weight cattle at the lowest possible prices, which it then sells on to local Turkish farmers and feedlots. Its practice has been to award one single contract at a time, per EU member state, to avoid driving up cattle prices.
Purcell Brothers is now using its own approved livestock boat, the MV Alondra, for its exclusive use in sending cattle to Turkey. Its latest shipment arrived in Turkey in good health on Monday. The firm plans to fill two more loads over the coming weeks and the Alondra is now on route back to Waterford.
Purcell Brothers also has operations in Australia run by Patrick Purcell, recently shipping dairy heifers from New Zealand to customers in southeast Asia. This is a lucrative contract.
The directors of the Irish operation are Gerard Purcell and David Geary, while Kevin Purcell is also closely involved in the cattle export operation.
The Mallon-owned company had a hectic 2016, exporting some 19,000 bull weanlings to Turkey after winning the first contract awarded here by Turkish government body ESK. Viastar bid for a follow-up contract in 2017 and was disappointed to lose out.
This year, it has continued with its established business, sending 200 to 300 head per week to Italy, mostly Belgian Blues. It is a supplier to the feedlots and finisher units, which finish cattle for the giant Coop Italia retail group.
A boat used by Viastar in exporting cattle
Viastar has plenty of plans ahead. It will send a boatload of breeding heifers to Turkey next month and is in the hunt for another ESK contract to supply weanling bulls there.
The Kerry family has been involved in cattle and sheep exports for many years, mainly to EU markets.
In 2017, John Hallissey stepped up a weight division, agreeing to supply large numbers of continental breeding heifers to a Turkish importer.
The numbers and distance involved required delivery by an approved livestock ship. This, in turn, meant big numbers. His firm had to purchase about 2,000 suitable heifers and house and feed them for a 30-day quarantine period – no small challenge.
The first boatload was shipped from Waterford Port in April. Its second docked in Turkey this week. It was loaded at Foynes Port, just up the road from John Hallissey’s Askeaton assembly yard.
The MV Sarah which Hallisseys used for shipping cattle to Turkey
The firm is expected to start buying for a third boatload soon. It is buying the heifers according to order by Turkish farmers. The biggest share of each load is red Limousins but each shipment also includes some Charolais and Angus.
John Hallissey was one of those who prodded the Department of Agriculture into seeking a veterinary agreement to open up exports to Turkey.
The Ballinagare, Co Roscommon-based family concentrates mainly on sending quality continental weanlings to Italy. It exports Angus and Hereford stock to Italy and Angus heifers to Spain. Recently, it has exported breeding stock to Russia.
The Maxwells have repeat customers on the continent having exported steadily for many years and are therefore a consistent presence at mart sales in the west.
The business was developed by Hubert Maxwell while his sons Micheál and Shane are now heavily involved.
After being out of the export business for some years he sent a boatload of heavy bulls to Libya in 2017.
Paul Clarke exported calves to Holland last spring and now sends pedigree Angus –heifers and some bulls – to Spain and Portugal. He exports ram lambs seasonally.
NEXT WEEK: Paul Mooney examines the main players in the calf export business