Our Fleet
Wellard designs and builds its own vessels to avoid the compromises in the design that retrofitting an existing ship requires.
Wellard’s fleet of predominantly purpose-built livestock vessels been approved by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (which has the toughest standards in the world). This technologically advanced fleet consists of large and mid-sized trades suitable for short and long-haul journeys.
The size of the area available for cattle and sheep and the speed and range of our vessels provide Wellard with competitive advantages on all worldwide routes. This enables Wellard to complete more voyages with more livestock while maintaining a high standard of animal welfare.
On board Wellard’s livestock vessels animal well-being and safety are optimised through vessel design and state-of-the-art monitoring technology in areas such as ventilation, automated feed and watering distribution, spacious enclosures and dynamic stability.
Ventilation is vital to the health and welfare of sheep and cattle on board. The Ocean Drover (right) has Pen Air Turnovers (PAT), a measure crucial to enhancing animal welfare, that outperform most vessels in the industry.
Wellard’s vessels are designed to ensure that the entire volume of air on each of the livestock decks is replaced more than once per minute with fresh air. This pen air turnover is three times greater than both the Australian industry standard for livestock vessels and commercial passenger aircraft.
Our in-house designed ventilation system evenly distributes the fresh air throughout the entire pen area with inlets or outlets located in each pen. The operation of the ventilation system is monitored 24 hours a day and is powered by two fully independent on-board power stations, so that in case of mechanical failure in one system the other automatically provides continuity of service.
The officers and crew on board professionally manage each vessel to ensure continued, efficient operations and the safe delivery of healthy livestock.
The Wellard fleet is comprised of:
- MV Ocean Drover
- MV Ocean Ute
The MV Ocean Drover (formerly the MV Becrux), was commissioned in 2002 and is the world’s second-largest, purpose-built livestock carrier, with advanced ventilation, feed and water systems.
The vessel is capable of transporting 75,000 sheep or 20,000 cattle to major markets around the globe.
The vessel carried its one-millionth head of cattle in October 2015, and by late June 2022, Wellard celebrated the Ocean Drover’s 200th journey.
In its first 200 voyages, the M/V Ocean Drover has transported 1,787,845 cattle and 5,112,205 sheep, travelling over two million nautical miles or 3.7 million kilometres.
Importantly, the vessel recorded a success rate of 99.3% for sheep and 99.9% for cattle across those voyages.
The M/V Ocean Drover’s voyages have included destination ports in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Israel, Philippines, Lebanon, Vietnam, China, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt and Russia. It loaded its sheep, cattle and goats from the Australian ports of Townsville, Darwin, Wyndham, Broome, Geraldton, Fremantle, Adelaide, Geelong, and Portland, as well as in the United States, Uruguay, Portugal, Colombia and New Zealand.
Vessel specifications:
- Length: 180 metres
- Breadth: 31.1 metres
- Gross tonnage: 33.774,14 tonnes
- Livestock area: 24,000 sq metres
- Number of decks: 9
- Summer draft: 8.2 metres
- Freshwater capacity: 2, 740,000 litres
- Freshwater production: 600 tonnes per day from 4 reverse osmosis desalination plants
- Fodder Capacity: 1500 tonnes
- Air circulation: 60 air changes/hour
- Speed: 20 knots
- Engines: Man B. & W. 7S50MC-C
- Crew: 45
The MV Ocean Ute was purchased by Wellard in 2015.
The vessel can transport about 6,000 cattle or 22,000 sheep, or a combination of both.
It was converted into a livestock carrier in 2010.
The MV Ocean Ute is classified by Bureau Veritas.
It has visited ports in South and South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Middle America, Gulf of Mexico, South America East Coast, East Asia and the Mediterranean Sea.
Vessel specifications:
- Length: 139.95 metres
- Breadth: 20 metres
- Gross tonnage: 12,665 tonnes
- Livestock area: 7,268 sq metres
- Number of decks: 7
- Summer draft: 7.2 metres
- Freshwater capacity: 1,322.04 cbm
- Freshwater production: 360 tonnes per day from 2 reverse osmosis desalination plants
- Fodder capacity: 1,234.3 cbm
- Air circulation: 60 air changes/hour
- Speed: 14 knots
- Engines: Ulstein Bergen Diesel, BRM-8 4SCSA
- Crew: 36