Plea for national action plan as feed shortage hits crisis levels

Animal feed shortages have reached such a crisis point in the Duhallow region that farmers are coming under emotional strain listening to starving cattle baying for food, said Fianna Fáil TD Michael Moynihan.

The North-West Cork TD says the Government needs to launch a national action plan within the next two to three days to relieve what he says is fast becoming an animal welfare and humanitarian crisis.

He is urging the State to buy in large volumes of animal feed and distribute it at reduced cost, along lines similar to the model being offered by some co-ops, but on a much larger scale.

“A taskforce is needed to alleviate the problem,” said Mr Moynihan.

“Farmers are under ferocious mental pressure, listening to animals baying for food. People are buying hay for €37-€45 per bale, and they’re snapping up any bit of silage that’s out there.

“There is a crisis out there, and it needs a more urgent response than just the department giving people advice. People have been following advice for the past eight or nine months. Some cattle are now starving, and farmers are telling me that nobody is listening to their calls for help.”

Mr Moynihan said the fodder crisis is particularly bad in Duhallow. Farmers have struggled to get themselves as far as the first week of April, but the wet weather that followed the cold spell has meant the fields are not providing food.

Farmers in the region say there is a stark contrast between the national sympathy expressed towards starving horses with what some people are viewing as indifference towards starving cattle.

Mr Moynihan also cites the rapid response which the government in the North initiated to provide relief to snowbound farmers in March. By contrast, livestock farmers in the South are being left to cope without any sign of a national response.

“Some smaller co-ops have been more proactive, sourcing fodder for their farmers and extending their credit,” said Mr Moynihan.

“But something urgently needs to be done at a national level. Full-time farmers have a huge problem with cash flow, and they don’t know where to turn to source feed. I don’t think they can go on this way much longer. ”

ICSA suckler committee chairman Dermot Kelleher agrees cattle and sheep farmers are near breaking point because of a scarcity of fodder, grass, and cash. He said: “I am very concerned because I fear that some farmers simply cannot handle the stress. There have been some useful local initiatives in terms of fodder relief and advice from Teagasc but I think the problem is now gone beyond that.

“I am calling for a national emergency taskforce to be set up by the minister which would involve farm representatives, co-ops and agri-merchants, banking representatives and Teagasc.”