Collectors of livestock which die on farms say they will reduce their services

Collectors of livestock which die on farms say they will reduce their services from next Wednesday, and will only deal with animals that are delivered to their premises.

The Animal Collectors Association (ACA) has taken this decision after the breakdown of their talks with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), in which they sought additional state support.

These talks began last July, and the ACA reduced their services temporarily last September. Agreement was reached then that enabled collection of “fallen” animals to resume from September 17, but the ACA said they will no longer travel to farms from next Wednesday to collect animals.

ACA members process almost 300,000 dead animals per year at their knackery yards.

The knackeries get DAFM funding for about one-quarter of the animals they take in, as part of the Government scheme for collection of fallen cattle (and sheep) aged over 48 months which have to be tested for BSE, an EU requirement.

ACA members say they are no longer financially viable, due to rising costs and inadequate state support in the Fallen Animal Scheme which was introduced in 2009.

They say new Fallen Animal Scheme requirements since 2013 have made their job harder, including a 125km haulage distance limit from a knackery to a rendering plant for carcases of cattle aged over 48 months.

A poor market for hides has exacerbated their financial position.

As well as facilitating EU-required BSE testing, ACA members play an important role in preventing dumping or illegal burial of fallen stock, and in the national animal identification and movement system.

Their reduction of services comes at a critical time, because knackeries handle up to 60% of their annual intake of animals in the spring months, due to casualties in the compacted dairy calving season.

IFA Animal Health Chairman Pat Farrell said the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, cannot allow a situation to arise where fallen animals are not being collected from farms.

He said since 2013, farmers have been exposed to continuous and unacceptable price increases and in some cases, knackeries refusing to collect certain animals.

ICSA Animal Health and Welfare chair Hugh Farrell said the last thing farmers need is for knackery services to be further disrupted.

Nobody wants to see a repeat of the situation we had last autumn when over 3,000 fallen animals were left uncollected on farms for an extended time due to a previous stoppage.