What happens to a family and their farm when BSE is diagnosed? The Hickeys in Co Cork received the bad news this summer and the herd was taken for slaughter a month later - now their farm is eerily silent. They talk to Iva Pocock about the experience

The Hickeys' is a family farm. Aidan, who is just 13, has been milking the cows for years. His younger sisters, Rachel and Alison, have also been helping with the farm animals since they were little, as has the baby of the family, Connor, although he seems fonder of the tractor than the livestock. During the summer holidays, the girls generally do the evening milking with their mother, Anne.

Saturday July 13th, 2002 was no exception.

Yet it is a day both Anne Hickey and her husband Con can remember in detail. At 3 p.m. they got a phone call from a Department of Agriculture official to say that they had a suspected case of BSE: a six-year-old suckler cow which had been put down the previous week had tested positive.

"You kind of go numb. That's the best way of describing it," says Con. "Maybe it's not right to associate the human-being with the animal but it is like a death in the family in one sense. You've been so attached to these cattle all your life, especially the cows. They are the ones that you'd miss the most because you've stayed up nights with them calving."

Although a second test is taken to confirm the diagnosis of BSE, Con explains: "There's no messing around. You're closed down straight away". The day after the Hickeys received notification, they had their herd number identification cards taken away and if they ever get new stock, they'll be given a different number. The blue, herd register in which Anne meticulously recorded details of all their livestock will also be taken. "Everything goes dead," says Anne. "Yes, you've no history as such," adds Con.

Their local co-op stopped collecting their milk immediately and from then until the whole herd (30 dairy cows, 40 sucklers, the rest calves and young stock) was taken for slaughter a month later, they had to spread the milk on the their land.

"There was no change in what we had to do for that month. You still had to get up and milk," says Anne, who is clearly still in shock."We were doing the same thing every day."

Both Anne and Con consider themselves lucky that they only had to wait one month between the time of diagnosis and when their herd was taken for slaughter. A couple of weeks after they received word from the department, they saw an RTÉ True Lives documentary called Dead Silence about two farmers who had BSE cases.

"One farmer in Sligo was informed in November and the cattle didn't go until sometime in March, which is the toughest time on any cattle farm," says Con. "As they're calving," explains Anne.

"The morning the cattle were going there was a cow calved and he still had to pull that calf and keep it alive even though it was going to be put down," continues Con."Poor Alison was balling crying when she saw that."

The Hickeys disagree about whether there were tears shed on the day their cattle were removed but there is no doubt the whole episode has been traumatic for all the family, including Con's parents who live on the farm. After much contemplation, they decided to let the children choose whether they wanted to be at home when the cattle were loaded up.

"They all wanted to stay," says Anne. "The girls had been feeding the calves every evening during the holidays and they actually wanted to load the cattle onto the trucks. That was their way of dealing with it - to be involved."

Although Con thinks attitudes to BSE have changed, he reckons there is still an element of stigma attached to having it and it seems there is still a general reticence to talk about it among the community. Aidan didn't tell any of his friends about the BSE. "Some people won't say it to you, but they'd know it," he says. "A boy in Alison's class got it too and they took his dog," says Anne. "He told nobody," says Alison.

"We had no problem with it because we knew it wasn't our fault. Nearly everyone has this attitude that you bought the animal in. But she was born and bred on our farm. The bull was still here and her mother was still milking," says Con.

He has no issue with the Department of Agriculture officials. "My difficulty is with the policy. Despite them saying that BSE is non-contagious, they take out the whole herd. Every animal is automatically slaughtered, whether it's a cow or a heifer or a bullock. It's all for publicity and image that they are taking the whole herd. It was done to appease the foreign buyers. They can say there were so many cases of BSE last year but those herds are completely depopulated and wiped out."

Con is also very unhappy with the compensation. Anne once overheard a man in the pub saying 'I wish to God I got it'. "He thought you got twice the price of the cattle as compensation." This isn't the case. Farmers whose herds are taken only get compensated for the market value of their animals, which Con points out may not be their replacement value. Furthermore, there is no compensation for the loss of income incurred in having to spread milk on the land rather than selling it and for the cost of feeding and caring for animals assigned for slaughter.

Legally, farmers have to stay out of stock for a month - not from the day their "infected" herd is taken but rather from the day they complete washing and disinfecting their buildings.

As for the future, the Hickeys remain in limbo. They still have their milk quota but if they decide to get into dairying again there are many practical problems. Usually, young cows learn the route to the milking parlour from the older members of the herd. Con recalls hearing of a farmer who said driving his new cows "was pure hell for months and months. He said: 'if only I had one old cow with them that would show them the way, I'd have been fine' ".

No doubt the Hickeys wish they had someone to show them the way now that their farm lies empty and eerily silent. Their only consolation is that, despite the trauma of this summer, their children are healthy and happy.