The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association’s (ICSA’s) animal health and welfare chairman, Hugh Farrell, released the lobby group’s demands for the Bovine TB Eradication Programme to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine today, Tuesday, October 1.

The demands, seen by AgriLand, call for technical agricultural officers (TAOs) to take on more of the vets’ current workload.

The document suggests that there is “no need” for vets doing the blood tests for TB on farms with breakdowns.

It noted: “Some countries have TAOs doing it and that’s a 50% saving.”

The ICSA questioned expenditure that saw the wildlife section get €3.5 million of the funding and “never once sat at the TB Forum”, according to Farrell.

I requested a breakdown of the €26 million and some other expenditures to date; however, the ICSA didn’t receive that.

“Farmers are suffering a big financial loss. They have lost the control of their farm; they cannot buy or sell. Their power of earning an income is taken away.

“In a lot of cases – in the beef and suckler herds especially – when small numbers have been removed by TB, the income supplement or the hardship grant serves very little purpose,” Farrell explained.

The hardship grant must apply regardless of off-farm income.

“The income supplement will have to be brought up to a level that it covers the basic cost of running the farm and an income for the farmer regardless of spouses income.”

Continuing, the document outlined that the vaccination of the badgers “is a further cost by vets doing it”.

It suggests the farm relief or the TAOs could do it “if the vaccine is sourced in the EU”.

There should be a special cage designed for vaccinating the badgers. It would save the cost of a vet’s callout and furthermore there would be no need to give an anaesthetic to the badger.

The document urges the need for the department to take responsibility for the deer.

“The numbers are increasing; there is reluctance from the department to admit the connection of TB breakdowns on farms and the wild deer in the area.”

In relation to the removal of livestock from farms in the event of a TB breakdown, all cattle must be removed on foot. Farmers are getting it hard enough to accept the loss of the cattle. This refers mainly to calves (to a factory).

“Without compensation addressed it’s not completed,” the document concluded.