Farmer fined for failing to dispose of dead animals on his farm

AN Irishtown farmer was fine a total of €800 after he was found to be in breach of a number of agriculture regulations including failure to dispose of cattle carcasses on his farm.
Joe McNamara of Burris, Irishtown, Claremorris pleaded guilty to the offences which also included failing to tag and register his cattle within the regulated timeframe and also failing to present all his cattle for TB testing on December 17, 2012.
Last week’s sitting of Castlebar District Court heard that during an inspection of the farm on March 27, 2013, four cattle aged between 14 to 15 months were found without tags and they were not registered.
Daniel Gavigan, a veterinary officer with the Department of Agriculture said calves should be tagged within 20 days of birth and registered within 27 days. He said there was no evidence of tags ever being placed in the four cattle.
Mr Gavigan also said that at the rear of the slatted shed, there was carcasses of three calves and one sheep which were badly decomposed and eaten by wildlife. When Mr McNamara arrived in the yard he said the four calves were never tagged or registered.
Mr Gavigan told Judge Mary Devins that a TB test was carried out on the farm on December 17, 2012 and farmers are legally obliged to present all their cattle for testing. If a cow does not have a tag, the vet will attach a tag to the ear of the cow.
Mr Gavigan said the four cattle found on the farm were never presented for testing. The court heard they were subsequently registered by the Department taken from Mr McNamara’s farm and destroyed as a precaution.
Under questioning from Mr Evan O’Dwyer, solicitor for Mr McNamara, Mr Gavigan said his client had 166 head of cattle at the time and there were no further charges in the pipeline. Mr O’Dwyer said his client feels the incident resulted in him losing €10,000 in single farm payments but Mr Gavigan denied this saying it had nothing to do with his inspection.
Mr O’Dwyer said his client was a widower and at the time of the incident he was distracted and sometimes was not attending to the details of the farm. He said he was a farmer all his life and there was no issue of him being a serial offender. He currently has 160 head of cattle and 350 sheep.
In relation to the carcasses found on the farm, Mr O’Dwyer said his client bought three heifers in the mart not knowing they were in calf and fed them for beef rearing. He said once he discovered they were in calf they could not survive because of the feeding they got. He said he found the sheep dead on his farm and they were not disposed of in time.
When asked about the four unregistered calves, Mr O’Dwyer said they were born into his herd but neglected to register them as he had issues at the time.
Judge Mary Devins said that while the protection of the national herd was very important she has come across much worse offenders than Mr McNamara. She accepted he had to be prosecuted but as he was going through a bereavement at the time accepted this to be seen as a blip and fined him a total of €800.