Louth suckler and sheep farmer Gerard Duffy woke up last Thursday to find that 10 of his stock had been stolen. The cattle were a mix of Limousin and Simmental.

“It’s a bit of an outfarm that we have just at the back of the homeplace. There’s a shed and we’d keep a few cattle in it but not a whole pile,” Duffy explained.

“I got a call from a neighbour on Thursday morning. He had noticed that the gate was a bit open and when he looked into the shed, it was empty.

‘‘Most of the cattle that were closest to calving were at the house. These were ones that were a bit out from calving yet and were on the outfarm.

“They took six cows which were due to calve in March and four replacement heifers. They took another four weanling heifers but they were dropped up the road. They must not have been able to carry all of them, so they dropped those four,” Duffy said.

The outfarm was secured. Duffy had two padlocked gates, as well as another locked barrier behind the gates. The padlock was cut and the barrier was sawed through as well. A neighbour of Duffy had his cattle trailer stolen the same night and it is believed that the trailer was used in the cattle theft.

Loss

Duffy said the financial loss is tough but the fact that he bred all the cows from birth is a bigger blow to him and his wife, Margot.

“We have a small little farm here, less than 20 cows and a couple of hundred ewes. We’ve lost over half of our calving animals but it’s not just about being out of pocket.

‘‘We bred these animals. It’s the breeding. We brought them through, we saw them grow into cows and then produce calves each year. That’s gone now, we have to start all over again; I don’t know if we’ll even bother (starting again) to be honest,” Duffy said.

“It might be of no use to anyone at all, but I just wanted to warn other farmers of the dangers. I never thought that I would be targeted.

‘‘If it makes other farmers sit up and take notice and be a bit more safe and secure with their farms, then it won’t have been in vain,” Duffy concluded.

Third theft

This was the third theft in the border region in the past two weeks, with the two other incidents occurring in Co Monaghan.

Last week, 11 cattle were stolen from a shed near Castleblayney. The cattle were a mixture of Belgian Blue, Limousin and Charolais and were described as “fit for slaughter”.

On Monday morning, six cattle from the Glaslough area of Monaghan were reported stolen. The cattle missing are two Limousin bullocks, two Charolais bullocks, a Charolais heifer and a Charolais cow.

Gardaí in the area have asked people to report all suspicious activity immediately as “it is too late reporting it the next day”.

Louth IFA is hosting a meeting in Mullaghbuoy Community Centre at 9pm on Thursday (tonight). The meeting is being held in the wake of recent thefts and all farmers are encouraged to attend. Louth IFA county chairman Matthew McGreehan will be chairing the meeting, which will be attended by local gardaí, as well as Ulster/North Leinster IFA chair Bert Stewart.