Farmer to dispose of all stock on ‘one of worst farms’ inspectors had visited

A BANDON farmer has been directed to dispose of all his animals by March 21st after veterinary inspectors found three dead cattle rotting on his farm during one visit, while other cattle looked ‘emaciated’ due to lack of food and water.

The ‘chronic neglect’ of 80 cattle belonging to Ronald Gill was outlined at a recent sitting of Bandon District Court. 

Mr Gill of Meelin, Bandon was in court to appeal two notices sent out by  the Department of Agriculture directing him to dispose of his herd following numerous inspections of his farm.

Michael Kelleher, department veterinary inspector, said that he first visited Mr Gill’s farm on December 14th last on foot of a complaint of a dead bovine on his land.

‘I saw a dead cow on the farm and it looked as if it was dead for three or four days, with no effort made to protect it or move it,’ said Mr Kelleher.

‘No explanation was given by Mr Gill. I inspected the sheds and winter houses where there was little grass available and then noticed an untagged nine-month cow dead in a cubicle, while the skeletal remains of another animal had a tractor parked in front of it.’

He said the other cattle on the farm were in poor condition, while the slurry tank was overflowing onto the farm cubicles and looked as if they hadn’t been cleaned in years.

‘The cattle crush was in a state of disrepair. While there was access to water, issues with the water pump arose after Christmas, meaning it was not working and the animals could only access water from a stream. There were no reserves of silage or hay for winter and clearly things had deteriorated on the farm.’

Mr Kelleher said he gave Mr Gill a verbal direction to provide the cattle with silage and to carry out TB tests on them.

On his second visit on January 6th, he noted that three of Mr Gill’s animals were on a neighbouring farm, while a further three dead animals were found that hadn’t been there on his previous visit.

‘The previous carcasses were still in the same place too, while the animals present were in poor bodily condition. There was no evidence of hay or silage, but there was feed. The straw was of poor quality and his tractor was not fixed.’

When he and his colleague Edward Myers visited the farm on the third occasion on January 13th no progress had been made so he said they had no choice but to issue three notices to Mr Gill, which were to be complied with by January 24th including disposing of all animals by that date.

‘We visited the farm on the 24th and saw there were two bales of silage in the field with plastic wrapping on it and cattle had to open it themselves. The level of progress wasn’t enough for me to change the notices or withdraw them.

‘It was one of the worst farms we have visited.’

Mr Myers said the lands were all ‘poached’ and that the cattle had access to the whole farm, while a lot of the cattle looked ‘emaciated.’

On their most recent visit to the farm on March 1st, Mr Kelleher said TB testing had been carried out on most of Mr Gill’s cattle, bar 10 animals that he couldn’t get access to, while he had sold four of the cattle since the notice was served.

‘We did see another dead bovine on the farm – he said it couldn’t be moved.’ 

Mr Gill, who represented himself, questioned Mr Kelleher and said he never inspected the animals when he visited the farm. He said they are suffering some type of virus, which his vet cannot identify or treat. 

He added that he didn’t want to make the houses and sheds hospitable to them as he feared the virus would spread quicker if they were left inside.

He said it was completely unreasonable to expect him to dispose of his animals in such a short time, and that he had problems sourcing silage for the cattle.

Judge James McNulty said the court considers the Department’s evidence to be ‘credible and convincing’ and that Mr Gill had not honoured the directions the officials had given him.

‘The court has seen the photos which are upsetting to view and I don’t think there’s anyone in court who will see these and not be appalled at the evidence of such neglect,’ said Judge McNulty.

‘Any self-respecting farmer would be ashamed to be associated with such chronic neglect.’

He directed Mr Gill to comply with the notices sent to him and he is to dispose of all his animals by ‘sale or slaughter or destruction’ by 5pm on Monday March 21st.