Recent flooding has compounded the fodder crisis in Galway. Officials from the Office of Public Works will visit the area, following appeals from local farmers for emergency drainage works.
Worst hit appears to be Gort, south Galway, which experienced severe flooding in 1994-95, while Kilcolgan, Williamstown, Mountbellew and Turloughmore have also been affected.
Stock has been removed to higher ground, and farmers facing a cash crisis are trying to ration fodder and combine it with animal feedstuffs.
The IFA south Galway chairman, Mr Michael Kelly, said yesterday that a £50 million emergency package to meet the fodder crisis was required. The OPW must also undertake local drainage works which would not cost more than £1 million, he said.
Last year, a consultants' report for the OPW ruled out major engineering works to prevent a recurrence of the flooding that swamped Gort in winter 1994-95. The report said such works would not be feasible on both cost and environmental grounds.
One scheme in Tarmon, which was regarded as feasible, could not be undertaken because it adjoined a Special Area of Conservation, Mr Kelly said. His branch wants a meeting with the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, to discuss the SAC issue. "We need a bit more flexibility on this," he said.
The black market for fodder in Galway has resulted in silage selling at £25 a bale, compared to £12 last year. Earlier this week, a leading animal feed supplier in the region said it had never experienced anything like the demand for feed, and the shortage of cash among smaller farmers.
The IFA predicts an even more serious situation by mid-February, with heavily pregnant out-winter suckler cows and ewes most at risk.
