TB restrictions causing hardship for farmers

DEPARTMENT of Agriculture restrictions in relation to TB are causing “serious financial hardship” for many Clare farmers, according to one local representative.

 

Clare County Councillor Pat Burke this week demanded that the Minister for Agriculture relax new restrictions introduced earlier this year under the TB Eradication Programme.

Among the changes that have come into force is one that sees animal-movement restrictions being put on neighbouring farmers, who have not had their herd tested within four months of an adjoining herd being found to have a high-risk breakdown. This is causing major problems for farmers in Clare, according to Councillor Burke.

“Essentially what this means is that if one farmer has his herd tested in June and it is found to be clear and a farmer with neighbouring land has his herd tested in November and there are reactors, then restrictions on movement of animals are imposed on the first farmer because it is more than four months since his herd was tested. This is what is so difficult for farmers here,” he said.

“This affects Clare particularly badly because the majority of our farming is suckler cows, where farmers sell their calves at eight to 10 months. Suckler farmers are finding themselves in serious financial hardship and trouble when they are restricted.

“Beef farmers are not as badly affected because they can at least get a permit to move their animals to meat export plants,” he added.

A further difficulty in Clare is the fragmentation of farms. “I spoke to one East Clare farmer, who is currently restricted but because his land is fragmented, 22 neighbours are affected. That would not be a once-off. It would be common enough around the county.

“If one farmer has land in four blocks and is restricted after a reactor is found in his test, each of those tracts might adjoin five other farmers’ lands. That would be 20 people right away who could be affected but, of course, it depends on when their herd was last tested,” he outlined.

Councillor Burke brought the issue up at a meeting of Clare County Council earlier this week after new department figures showed that between April and June this year, Clare had one of the highest number of reactors per 1,000 tests (2.53) in the country.

According to Councillor Burke, the department and previous governments have not dealt with the source of the problem.

“The TB Eradication Scheme has been going on for over 50 years and the department has failed to tackle the source of the problem, which we as farmers believe is the large numbers of badgers and wild deer roaming the countryside and transmitting the disease.

“They have tinkered around the edges but have never got to the heart of it. They have never dealt with the badgers and deer. I am not calling for a total cull on badgers but where there is high population of badgers, and where TB is a problem, badgers and deer will have to be dealt with,” Councillor Burke stated.

“Scotland is TB free. In Ireland we are at this now 50 years and it is nearly an industry for the department at this stage,” he concluded.