Teagasc yesterday strongly denied there was "any question" of a welfare issue with its pedigree herd at Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, where a dispute with local farmers has prevented the closure and sale of the former agricultural research station there.
Teagasc director, Mr Jim Flanagan, confirmed that Teagasc was ceasing milk production at the centre from today and, to achieve that, had reduced the rations to the cows to "dry" them off, with "great reluctance".
"They will be operated as a beef herd and there is no question of the animals not being properly fed. In fact, the staff there have been refusing instructions to cut back on the meal rations and reduce the milking to once from twice a day," he said.
Mr Flanagan said Teagasc was merely implementing the closure and sale of the centre, made over a year ago.
A local action committee which had prevented the herd being moved from the research station said the response of Teagasc management to the demands of the farming sector in the north-west, and in particular in relation to the demands to retain the station, had been to instruct its staff to reduce to subsistence diet levels one of the finest Montbeliarde pedigree herds in the country.
It said the action by the management was petty, petulant and an unacceptably reckless waste of State and taxpayers' resources.