The largest shipment of pedigree Holstein Friesian in-calf heifers set sail to Algeria from Belview port in south Kilkenny yesterday, Wednesday, January 15.

The shipment of these in-calf heifers was orchestrated by Cows.ie in which 2,100 top class heifers were loaded up throughout a "long day", in which they will undergo a five-day journey to reach the shores of Algeria.

"This was the biggest shipment of pedigree in-calf heifers to leave Ireland", a representative from Cows.ie said.

The representative told Agriland that there is a new growing and emerging market in Algeria that presents great opportunity for the export of top quality breeding stock.

The heifers set sail on a ship called the 'Shorthorn Express', where they will serve as great milk producers on Algerian dairy farms.

This is the second shipment of in-calf heifers, as the first shipment set sail last January (2024) with a total of 1,000 heifers on board.

This means that over 3,000 heifers have went to Algeria over the last 12 months. The Cows.ie representative added that this demand is only going to grow and they are "urging people to breed dairy heifers".

The managing director of Cows.ie said that "everybody is running to use beef, but they don't realise that there is a hell of a market for dairy heifers that we can exploit".

Cows.ie told Agriland that after the first shipment last year, the Algerian farmers have seen the quality of the stock and are very pleased with what they are getting.

The fear for Cows.ie, is that there is going to be a scarcity of surplus heifers on farms due to the uptake of sexed semen and beef semen, as farmers are only breeding what they need.

"People should not be running towards beef semen as there is a huge market there for Irish heifers and it's not just in Algeria, it's all across North Africa and Europe," Cows.ie told Agriland.

There is a demand in "Morocco, Algeria, Spain, Portugal and the UK, we are not forgetting our neighbours".

The Cows.ie representative said that "it has obviously been recognised that it's working and that it's only going to grow now and only going to open the door as Irish Holstein heifers are now accepted literally worldwide".

The shipments and sourcing of these heifers have been heavily supported by the Irish Holstein Frisian Association (IHFA), the Cows.ie representative acknowledged.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) ensures that everything is done to the highest standard when it comes to shipping these heifers and live exports as a whole, the Cows.ie spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that while it is crucial to keep standards high and it is their ambition to always keep it that way, "there's only four ships in the world that can work out of Ireland, because the standard is so high".

"It's only four ships that you have the choice of and that's one of our biggest issues at the moment - that there's not enough ships available to Ireland", which is slowing down the trade according to the Cows.ie representative.

"These standards are set down by DAFM and we find it is a problem for us.

"The biggest problem that we have is is finding the ship to do the job as the four ships are also busy around the world at the moment," they continued.

The fact that Ireland is bluetongue free is a big help for the demand of Irish stock, as the rest of Europe seems to be suffering with it, according to the spokesperson.