Praying for confidence to return

Padraig Moran is a livestock farmer

Padraig Moran is a livestock farmer. The State's entry to the EEC in 1972 heralded an era of specialised farming, far from the system of his boyhood when farmers had a few dairy cows and grew vegetables, fodder crops, and sugar beet for the factory in Thurles. "In those times, people had to be in everything to try and make some little bit of money during the year, for cashflow," he says. His wife, Nuala, has a clerical job in Nenagh. He says the household depends on the two incomes. With their two sons at school, he spends the day on his 110-acre farm near Borrisokane.

He has 52 suckler cows and 50 yearlings, last year's offspring which are being reared on the farm. He also has 160 ewes. "From a grass management point of view, it is a lot more efficient to have the sheep there as well." He rears the calves to "store" stage, selling them on as yearlings when they are between 12 and 14 months. Last year he gave up "finishing" cattle, where they are reared to "beef stage" and sold to a meat factory.

"At the end of the year, when I made up my figures, I was not making money out of finished cattle. It was easy to make up my mind. Once you see it on paper, that tells you.

"I can understand this year how lads are losing so much money where they bought on a rising market and this disaster has hit. I know friends of mine who have bought cattle for £600 and, if they were to put them into the factory, you would be talking about maybe £500. You would be talking about losing £100 a head on cattle."

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As the IFA's livestock representative for Tipperary North, Mr Moran spends much of his day taking calls from farmers uncertain about the future of their herds and the wisdom of continuing. "When your next-door neighbour disappears, it isolates you. I can see farmers getting more and more isolated."

Farmers feel frustrated at the way BSE "is imposed on us. It is totally out of our control. We had no act or part in it." He is hoping for a return of confidence in beef, particularly in cattle over 30 months, following the introduction of the testing scheme.

"They are the primest of beef that you can get. You are getting an animal that is in its prime, it is not a fast finish. It is not very appealing for us to see those fine cattle going for incineration. But at the end of the day, it is what way it will affect your pocket."

He bemoans the media image of the "cow falling around the screen".

"People are not eating those cows. You are eating young beef which is two years-plus. BSE has never been found in those animals."

In one of his sheds, his cows, inside for the winter, are contentedly eating silage with a mineral powder spread on it. This year, the protein content of the cereal feeds was good but he wonders where the protein for feeding beef cattle will come from in the future with the ban on meat-and-bone meal.

Safe disposal of dead animals is an issue for farmers. Burial of animals on the land is not permissible without a licence and there are fewer knackers who collect the carcass to pass on to a rendering plant. He believes the cost of collecting dead animals should be subsidised.