Livestocks Seagoing vessels modified or purpose-built for the transportation of live animals.
Subject to appropriate regulation, live animals may be transported as part of the cargo on various classes of ship. That particular method of transportation is more common on short sea crossings (e.g. ferries) and usually involves relatively small numbers of animals. Livestock carriers are those ships, which specialise exclusively in the transportation of large numbers of live animals together with their requirements for the voyage. (food, water, sawdust bedding, medication, etc.).
Voyages on livestock carriers generally last from three days to three or four weeks. Some have lasted for months when disease outbreaks are suspected.
Livestocks Vessels engaged in that trade have covered a broad range of sizes, from 2,000 tonnes deadweight (DWT) to 25,000 DWT.
Medium-sized vessels with capacity for about 30,000 to 40,000 sheep (or 3000 to 4000 head of cattle) are a common size for this type of ship. However, during the last two decades of the twentieth century, there were a small number of sheep carriers which had capacity for 130,000 sheep.
There were at least two other large livestock carriers which specialised in combined cargoes of cattle and sheep. One had capacity for about 7,000 cattle and 70,000 sheep and the other could carry 14,000 cattle and 20,000 sheep.
Livestocks vessels carrying horses, camels, deer, goats,sheeps and, on at least one occasion, ostriches. The transportation of live fish, on small specialised vessels, is a similar trade which has developed in association with fish farming.