Fortunately, calf exports are up and running again this week after ferries were cancelled on Saturday, February 29, due to the poor weather brought by Storm Jorge.
This has lead to more interest around the ring-side, some marts have reported.
However, the disruptions to last week’s sailings – due to the poor weather conditions – have lead to a backlog of calves on farms – with dairy farmers becoming anxious to get bull calves off farm.
Taking a look at the figures – week ending March 1 – some 2,678 dairy calves (between zero and six weeks) were exported to the European destinations of the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium.
Whereas, the week previously, some 9,520 dairy calves were exported to European destinations. This is a decrease of 6,842 calves or by 72%.
When compared to the same week last year – week ending March 3, 2019 – some 8,072 dairy calves were exported. This is a fall by 5,394 head or by 67%.
In total – so far for this year – 16,070 dairy calves have been exported, with the main destinations being the Netherlands, Spain and Poland. A small proportion of calves have also gone to Belgium, Italy and France.
- Netherlands: 10,398 head;
- Spain: 4,048 head;
- Poland: 293 head;
- Belgium: 357 head;
- France: 327 head;
- Italy: 647 head.
When compared to the same time last year, some 28,094 had been exported up to week ending March 3, 2019; so calf exports are down by 12,024 head or by 43%.