'Farmers have no fodder': Impact of 'exceptional flooding' on Shannon Callows
While a scheme to assist farmers who have lost fodder has recently been announced, there are farmers who will have lost "considerably more" than what the support will provide for.
Thousands of acres of silage and hay have been destroyed on farms as a result of flooding on the Shannon Callows.
While a scheme to assist farmers who have lost fodder has recently been announced, there are farmers who will have lost "considerably more" than what the support will provide for.
The Save Our Shannon Organisation represents farmers in counties Galway, Offaly, Roscommon, Westmeath, and further afield who are impacted by major winter and summer flooding of the River Shannon.
Residents have been "hit very hard this year", according to the organisation.
The Shannon Callows are the areas of flat land along the river.
Winter flooding occurs every year. The rain of late autumn and winter causes the water in the River Shannon "to rise above the banks and spill over thousands of acres of land and stay there" for up to four months of the year, the Save Our Shannon Organisation explained.
"It may fall back after that time but flooding will render the land useless for grazing from October to March each year.
"In the summer, when the flood waters recede and the land dries, the fields can be grazed and the grass cut for hay, silage/haylage."
The organisation said that summer flooding used to occur every now and then prior to the mid-1990s.
However, these floods are more prevalent now.
"These summer floods are causing harm to the livelihood of farmers, business people, boat hire companies, fishermen, and people in the tourist industry," the organisation said.
"Their habitats have been destroyed by water flooding the grass, the hedgerows, the drains and the woodland – their homes."
Constant summer flooding has prevented farmers from grazing land and saving hay this year; the summer flood came in early July and has remained since.
"No fodder has been saved this year in the longest summer flood ever," according to the organisation.
Chairman of the organisation Michael Silke has estimated that there are 7,000 acres of meadow gone and 7,000 acres of grazing gone in the area as a result of the flooding this year.
"It is a disaster area," Mr Silke told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
"The flooding started with us when we had a major flood on St Patrick's Day. That was carried on. We could not get the cattle into our callows until the first week of June," Mr Silke said.
"The meadow areas were a total washout. We got absolutely nothing whatsoever out of those, so our land has been destroyed the whole year."
Mr Silke said that farmers "have no fodder". Those who normally graze the callows have "had to put their cattle out on their silage ground at home to try and keep their cattle going, and they have no fodder".
"There is a very serious situation evolving down there," he said.
John Ryan has a dairy and beef farm in Shannonbridge, west Offaly.
Since July, he said he has roughly 40 hectares under water.
"Our losses accumulate to hundreds of bales of silage or hay. We have numerous acres lost for grazing as well," Mr Ryan said.
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue recently announced funding of over €800,000 to the farmers who have been affected by fodder loss due to the flooding in the region.
Payment will be at a rate of €325 per hectare for farmers affected by fodder loss and will be paid on a minimum of one hectare and a maximum of 15 hectares.
Mr Ryan said this support is "badly needed", but "unfortunately, it just falls well short for a good few people".
"Personally, I have already spent four times the allocated money I would be hoping to get on trying to recoup what has already been lost, and we still do not have enough. We are still trying to source," Mr Ryan said.
Michael Silke also said that the 15 hectares "is a major issue because a lot of farmers have lost very heavily".
"As well as that, there is no talk about grazing. The farmers in the grazing areas have been equally at a loss. They got a month on the callows this year, and they are under serious pressure, as well as being in with the meadow at the minute," he added.
Irish Farmers' Association president Tim Cullinan said that it's important that the funding is "released as soon as possible, and that the conditions to apply are not too onerous".
Mr Cullinan said the "lack of action" taken to prevent flooding on the Shannon Callows must be addressed by authorities, and in the longer term, an agency must be established "which would include local farmers to manage the River Shannon to rectify the problems".
