Farmers’ hands are tied when it comes to the deer problem in Co. Wicklow, Tom Stephenson, an Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association member, has said.
Stephenson, an executive member of ICSA in Wicklow, was speaking to Agriland ahead of an ICSA meeting on the issue in the Glen of Imaal, Co. Wicklow, on Thursday next, February 23.
“We have a terrible problem with the deer in Wicklow, there’s too many of them coming down onto our land grazing our succulent grass.
“There’s not enough sheep on the mountain to keep the grass down and the deer aren’t staying up in the hills because the grasses are too long up there for them to eat.”
On the TB risk, Stephenson said that in the Glen of Imaal there’s a huge amount of farmers that have herds with TB.
“Every second one of us has TB and we can’t sell cattle of if they have it. Some are three or four years locked down with it.”
They come out onto our farmland, drink the water, eat from the calf feeders and eat the silage for the cows.
“Then if we go in to shoot and deer and do it on our land but the deer struggles into the forestry, we can’t go in after it because we’ll be fined.
“The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) are over the deer and Coillte are over the forestry – but there’s no joined up thinking on the issue.”
The Wicklow farmer said that they want the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, to do something about the problem.
“We’re basically feeding them. I sowed 15ac of fodder rape last year, the deer ate 5ac of it. I put meal in a feeder for calves the other night and when I got up there, the deer were in the feeder eating it.
“It wasn’t the calves I was feeding at all.”
The meeting takes place in the Glen Lounge at 8pm, this Thursday, February 23. Minister of State, Andrew Doyle, is expected to attend the meeting along with an auctioneer and a district superintendent.