Farmer’s distress at cow being binned

The farmer, who asked not to be identified, accepted that he should have checked the tags the night before when three of his animals were transported to the meat plant, but he is asking why farmers are not given an opportunity to supply a missing tag or rectify the issue within a specific time limit, when such errors are detected.

The tagging error resulted in one of his three animals - an 11 year old pedigree Limousin cow worth several hundred pounds - being binned.

The farmer said he became aware of the problem when he received an invoice for two of the animals and he rang the meat plant to check if there had been an error.

It transpired that the eartag on one of the animals couldn’t be read and the animal was dumped in the bin as a result.

The farmer asked why, in such circumstances, farmers aren’t given an opportunity to provide a replacement eartag within a reasonable time frame.

He added; “It is such a waste of a good animal. They should have held the payment and allowed me to get a replacement tag. There has to be options rather than dumping it.

“I don’t blame the department but I was disappointed because it is such a harsh punishment to just take the animal and dump it.

“The tag was maybe missing and that could be my fault. We loaded them the evening before and I didn’t check the tags, it could have been missed. But I believe the punishment is excessive.”

The farmer said he had been left feeling frustrated at the lack of options in the circumstances. He has since been in touch with a couple of his local MLAs and the Ulster Farmers’ Union on the issue.

Apart from the financial loss, he said he feels in the current climate that it is ‘morally wrong’ to dispose of an otherwise healthy animal which could have entered the foodchain.

“This was a pedigree Limousin cow which was born on my farm and we have had for 11 years. She was as clean as you could have in terms of identification.

“I feel violated that they never rang me or said anything for it was such a minor error. I just feel belittled,” he added.