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Galway Civil Defence got a call just hours into the new year from a local farmer who had stranded cattle.
“A local farmer needed cattle moved,” said the Galway Civil Defence senior officer Brendan Qualter. “When we arrived in the early hours of Friday morning there were around 70 cattle in the shed that had started flooding.”
The shed held 64 suckler cows with six calves at foot and was surrounded by floodwaters on all sides. Their initial tactic was to try guide the animals to safety.
“We tried to get the cows to swim through a narrow channel, following our boats,” said Qualter. “But once they got out of their depth they’d turn and head back to the safety of the shed.”
On New Year’s Day, Galway Civil Defence rescued the calves from the shed.
“We used pontoons under a cattle trailer that had no axle and just ratchet strapped them together,” said Qualter. According to local Civil Defence, this is the first time such a vehicle was used. “We didn’t move the cows until Sunday, at which point the water was coming up through the shed.
“We had to test the weight of the cows in our trailer but once that was done it was just a case of ferrying them across. It took a whole day to do it, starting at 8am and finishing at 4pm. It took eight members of the Galway Civil Defence and lots of help from the farmers who brought us tea and sandwiches.
“The farmer involved had seen flooding plenty of times before but never thought it would become an emergency like it did. They really were exceptional circumstances.”
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