‘We want to see calves flying out of this country’ – 900 to be flown to Belgium in the new year

“We want to see calves flying out of this country,” Tim Cullinan said, having confirmed that Teagasc will fly 900 calves to Belgium in 2021.

As part of a trial charter flight for calf transport, a plane with 900 calves will go to Ostend early in the new year.

In November, AgriLand reported that a joint research project between Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, entitled ‘Moove’, will address the current knowledge gaps and, based on the evidence, achieve “global leadership” in improving the welfare of calves undergoing transport.

All methods of transport, including air transport, are to be studied to see if they present opportunities to improve calf welfare.

Teagasc had advertised the tender ‘Request for Information’ (RFI) for a trial charter flight for calf transport, with the deadline for expressions of interest passing mid-November.

The first flight is expected to be between March and April next year.

‘We want to see calves flying out of this country’

Speaking at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine this week, president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Tim Cullinan said that a plane with 900 calves will fly out to Ostend.

He said that at least if the calves get to there, it is “easy enough to distribute those calves right across Europe”.

While acknowledging the expense of the travel, he spoke of the advantages, mainly those of getting into “newer markets”.

There is a demand in Spain, particularly for the Friesian bull calves, even the Jersey cross calves, there’s a market there as well.

“But, I think we need to look into countries outside the EU as well to find new markets. That’s a job Bord Bia needs to be doing at the moment.

“We have to look at where we are here now…at approximately 1.5 million dairy cows in the country, 800,000 suckler cows in the country, if we were to keep those calves at home, we’re going to have a consistent kill of well in excess of 40,000 a week…and we all know what happens if we’re killing more than 40,000 cattle a week.”

He added: “We want to see calves flying out of this country. It is very important that whatever has to be done to facilitate calves going through Rosslare is done as well.”