The Dutch Food and Safety Authority is preparing to fine Irish livestock carriers who fail to properly feed unweaned calves during their journey to the Netherlands, following years of concern from animal welfare groups and a European Commission audit that found the practice breaches EU transport law.
The Netherlands’ Food and Safety Authority (NVWA) has announced it will impose fines on four Irish carriers transporting unweaned calves into the country, in response to claims the animals are not fed during the sea crossing despite legal requirements to do so. The Netherlands remains a key destination for Irish dairy calves sold into mainland Europe, with recent figures ranging from approximately 150,000 to 200,000 animals leaving Ireland each year, most of which are used for veal production and typically travel by sea from Ireland to France before completing the journey by road.
Why the ferry crossing is the central problem
The core difficulty lies in how the animals are transported during the sea crossing. Calves remain inside livestock trucks while those trucks are carried aboard the ferry, rather than being unloaded onto a dedicated livestock vessel where milk could be administered. Research on actual Ireland-France-Netherlands journeys found the ferry section typically lasts around 18 hours, during which conventional milk feeding is not possible because the calves remain confined to their trucks.
A 2026 scientific paper on Irish calf transport found that some journeys to mainland Europe can exceed 50 hours in total. Under the current system, calves are generally fed at an assembly centre in Ireland and again at a French control post, but not during the ferry crossing itself. Researchers have stressed that unweaned calves require regular milk and cannot simply be substituted with hay or other solid feed during this gap.
Notably, a 2025 Teagasc study found that the duration of fasting appeared more strongly linked to calf welfare outcomes than the overall length of the journey, suggesting the inability to receive milk for prolonged periods, rather than travel time itself, represents the more critical physiological stress on the animals. Some animal welfare investigators have alleged that calves on certain journeys have gone 27 hours or more without feeding, with some claims suggesting periods exceeding 30 hours, though such claims should be treated as allegations rather than established fact.
Welfare concerns and consequences
Animal welfare groups claim this situation can leave calves weak, dehydrated, suffering from hypoglycaemia, and in some cases, dying en route. However, research suggests the problem may be solvable through better on-board feeding systems. Teagasc researchers tested an on-board milk-replacer feeding system during the Ireland-France ferry section, following calves travelling all the way from Ireland to the Netherlands. Forty calves were given milk replacer aboard the truck during the crossing, while 60 served as a control group; blood-welfare indicators were generally found to be better among the calves that received feed during the crossing than among those in the control group.
How the Dutch penalties will work
Under the NVWA’s enforcement plan, Irish transporters bringing calves into the Netherlands will initially receive a warning and 12 months to adopt a more “humane and animal-friendly manner” of transporting the animals. Should they fail to do so within that period, a fine of €3,000 will apply per violation, rising to €9,000 for a third breach and €27,000 for a fourth offence. The regulations will apply to any transporter of unweaned calves entering or leaving the Netherlands that has received an order subject to a penalty payment.
This latest enforcement step appears to be the culmination of a longer-running Dutch monitoring effort, rather than an isolated decision. The NVWA’s own 2025 inspection report classified long-distance calf transports from Ireland as a heightened risk category specifically because of the additional ferry travel time involved, and noted that inspectors were finding companies failing to comply with prescribed feeding intervals on long-distance journeys to the Netherlands. The regulator confirmed this would remain a focus of its inspections throughout 2026.
Dutch inspections in 2024 also recorded a broader range of violations involving calves transported between EU countries, including inadequate water provision, breaches of transport and rest-time rules, inadequate treatment of animals, and problems with transport documentation and vehicle conditions, resulting in warnings, formal findings reports and criminal reports.
EU-level findings and legal limits
The issue extends beyond Dutch enforcement alone. A European Commission audit of Ireland concluded that unweaned calves are not being fed during the Ireland-France RoRo ferry crossing, despite EU Regulation 1/2005 requiring feeding at appropriate intervals. The Commission reiterated this concern in a response published in June 2026, stating that the welfare of unweaned calves on long-distance journeys remains an issue and that Ireland needs to achieve full compliance. The original audit dates back to 2022, with its findings published in 2023, meaning the underlying problem has been documented for several years.
Despite these findings, the Netherlands cannot simply ban the entry of Irish calves. In its June 2026 response, the Commission confirmed that EU member states do not have the legal power under EU law to prohibit the entry of animals from another member state on the grounds of poor implementation of the animal transport regulation. This explains why Dutch enforcement has taken the form of orders, warnings and financial penalties, rather than an outright ban on Irish calf imports.
Political scrutiny in Brussels
The issue has also drawn attention in the European Parliament, where a parliamentary question specifically asked the Commission about the continued transport of unweaned calves from Ireland, including whether penalties should be imposed on transport companies and whether the practice should be halted altogether. In response, the Commission confirmed the findings of its original 2022 audit and said it continues to monitor Ireland’s efforts to address the problem.
A possible technological solution
One significant development may point toward a resolution. The European Commission said in June 2026 that information from Irish authorities indicates the country is working on an automatic feeding system for calves during ferry journeys. Rather than halting the trade altogether, Ireland appears to be exploring technological changes that would allow the existing road-ferry-road transport system to continue while meeting feeding requirements under EU law.
