More than 100 live calves have been seized from a farm in Co Limerick which is under investigation for animal welfare violations following the discovery of several hundred dead calves there after complaints about fouls smells were made at the end of August.
The remaining calves, the majority of which are dairy-bred bulls such as Friesians and Jerseys, were removed on Thursday by the authorities, but their health condition is unclear. It is understood that some of the animals had to be euthanised.
Bull calves are viewed as low-value animals due to their poor ability to fatten for beef. Large numbers of these types of calves are usually exported to be used in the veal market.
One of the farmers connected to the discovery has a previous conviction for animal cruelty, while another is understood to have already had his herd number — which allows farmers to keep livestock — stripped from him. Most of the calves involved were received for no cost by the farmers.
The discovery of the dead animals has been widely condemned by the farm and wider community, with questions raised about how the situation could have been allowed to happen.
A national electronic reporting system is in place to record all cattle and calf deaths, and the system is used by knackery collection services who record recoveries of animal remains from farms. This information feeds back to the Department of Agriculture, which monitors on-farm mortality rates and inspects higher-than-average incidences.
Furthermore, every farmer keeping cattle is legally obliged to carry out an annual test for TB. Once again, an electronic record of each animal’s ear tag number is used to record testing carried out by a vet. Failure to present an animal for testing results in a herd being “locked up” and closed off from the cattle trade, and raises a red flag about any missing animals.
This makes it probable that the farm in Co Limerick was not officially reporting the death of calves and that the large volume of dead calves discovered accumulated over a relatively short period of 12-15 months.
The dairy industry has long struggled with what to do with low-value dairy bull calves and the issue has been exacerbated since the abolition of quotas and the continual rise in dairy cow numbers.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin last week said that Ireland’s international reputation as a food producer is damaged by incidents such as that on the Co Limerick farm.