This is a subscriber-only article
Cavan farmer Vincent Crowe is counting the costs and has learned a lesson after three of his cattle were electrocuted during Storm Hector last week.
Last Thursday evening, he was going out of the lane from his yard and noticed that one of the ESB wires was a bit loose. It was getting dark, so he decided he would check it in the morning.
“On Friday morning, my brother rang and said that the wire was fairly loose. I rang a friend in the ESB to make sure it wasn’t dangerous – he said I had to report it. I called the ESB and they said they would get a crew out to it.
“The ESB crew came out to check it out and one of the men from ESB said ‘is that your field out the front?’. I told him it was and he said ‘you’ve three dead cattle in the field’,” Crowe told the Irish Farmers Journal.
It was another half an hour before the ESB confirmed that the line was dead so he could go in to check the dead cattle. It emerged that the wire had snapped at the ESB pole.
The cattle - an Angus bullock, a Moiled heifer and a Friesian cow - were electrocuted as a result of the wire snapping. There was six other cattle in the field at the time.
“I could have run down into that field to see what happened and I could have been electrocuted. An accident like that could have happened very quickly. I have learned a lesson,” he said.
He also said that by coming forward with his story, it might serve as a warning to other farmers when it comes to fallen wires.
Cost
The Cavan farmer said that he hasn’t valued the cattle yet, but that he will get a vet out to value them.
However, he said it has “opened his eyes to what can happen”.
SHARING OPTIONS: