Local farmer rep vows to convey anger over TB letters to Department

A Cavan farming representative has said that the TB letters received by farmers last week has generated more angry calls than any other in recent years.

Lorcan McCabe has fielded calls from numerous farmers perplexed by the Department’s suggestion they should cull healthy cattle which were part of the herd during a breakdown years earlier.

He assured that the ICMSA will relay that anger at a meeting with the senior Department officials on Thursday, September 10.

Lorcan cites an example of a letter - shown to the Celt – received by one farmer who wished to remain anonymous. It outlines that the farmer’s herd endured a breakdown seven years ago, and lists the tag numbers of seven cattle which the Department describe as ‘at risk’. They acknowledge the animals tested clear at the time of the breakdown but recommends their removal regardless.

‘Animals which were alive during a previous breakdown, but tested clear, are at a greater risk of developing TB in the future. You should consider culling these animals as soon as practicable,’ reads the letter.

“They have been tested since [and were clear], and now they are saying they are a problem,” says the Bailieborough man, bemused by the letter.

Lorcan observes the anomaly of culling those animals, some of which may have been in calf at the time, and have been in close contact with the remainder of the herd for years, yet the other animals are not deemed ‘at risk’.

Another letter received by a County Cavan farmer, also seen by The Anglo-Celt, outlines that he has “in excess of 50 clear animals” from a previous outbreak, and that are now deemed by the Department as “at risk”.

“Let’s be clear – there’s no compensation for those animals,” clarifies Lorcan. “You could have a good yielding cow in her fifth or sixth lactation – could be a very valuable cow to you. To replace her it could cost you €1,700. But you put a dairy cow into the factory to cull her, you’ll get €500-600 – no farmer’s going to do it.”

He remarks: “In all the years I have been in the ICMSA, this letter has caused more controversy, and more phonecalls into the office than anything else.”

The controversy occurred against the background of the well publicised upheaval at the department’s helm.

Lorcan suspects that had there been a permanent minister for agriculture in place, the issue of the letters, which he describes as “the height of nonsense”, would have been dealt with differently.

The TB Forum had been due to meet the previous Friday (August 28), before the letters were received, but that meeting was cancelled due to the vacancy in the ministerial seat, although officially Taoiseach Micheál Martin held the agriculture folio.

“If it had been discussed I don’t think that letter would have gone out in the format that it did,” he opined.

Lorcan met Charlie McConalogue when he was agriculture spokesperson for Fianna Fáil for Agriculture four or five times in the past, and admits to being optimistic by his appointment as minister, hopeful the young Donegal man will “want to leave a mark and get the job done”.

“I found him very approachable and he listened attentively to us,” recalls Lorcan, adding that his experience of living close to the Border should provide him with a keen insight to the significance of Brexit to farmers in this region.