Think of cattle rustling and for many it conjures up thoughts of the Billy the Kid and the Wild West. However, the reality is that the crime of livestock theft has cost the sector millions of euro. While a problem for years, the numbers of cattle and sheep being stolen would appear to be growing.

Analysis carried out by the Irish Farmers Journal has shown that between Northern Ireland and the Republic, nearly €14m worth of cattle has been stolen from Irish farms over the past three years. This means that the livestock theft economy has an annual value of more than €4.5m.

Since 2012, more than 9,000 cattle have been stolen from farms in the North and Republic. The vast majority of those were stolen in the North. However, the numbers of cattle being stolen in the South has been increasing. In 2012, there were 133 cattle reported stolen in the Republic. This jumped to 298 last year – a 165% rise.

Monaghan (48), Limerick (38) and Mayo (34) were the counties with the highest cattle thefts. Rustling was traditionally seen as a border crime, but surges in cattle thefts in Mayo, Clare and Meath shows that the crime is now an all-Ireland one. So far for 2014, there have been nearly 80 cattle stolen.

The problem is exponentially worse in Northern Ireland. Between 2010 and 2013, 8,891 cattle were stolen from farms in the north.

So where do the stolen cattle go? This is a question which has been open to some debate. After months of investigations from the Irish Farmers Journal, involving discussion with farmers as well as members of An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), there would be appear to be two main destinations for stolen cattle:

1. Stolen for order into herds.

2. Stolen for slaughter.

While not impossible, stealing cattle to place into herds is difficult. Despite that, this is the most common destination for stolen cattle. They can be stolen from a herd and placed into another, in some instances to replace a dead animal. One tag can be reported lost with a second tag lost six to 12 months later.

Some of the cattle are stolen for slaughter, either in legitimate or illegal abattoirs. The term illegal slaughterhouse has been used frequently, but in reality premises which have been investigated by the police have just been a cattle shed – essentially a premises without a licence to slaughter livestock. The Department of Agriculture, the PSNI and the gardaí have all acted on intelligence regarding a number of abattoirs, in the border region in particular.

Most recently, in March, the PSNI raided a suspected illegal abattoir on the Louth /Armagh border.

Illegal abattoirs have recently been linked to paramilitaries, who have turned to the illegal slaughter of cattle as a lucrative alternative to other illegal activities.

Last October, the carcases of six adult cattle were found boned out in Louth.

Speaking to the Louth county vet at the time, he confirmed that the carcase were boned out “with expert precision”. The bones were then dumped at Ravensdale Park in Louth, only a short distance from the old ABP plant in Ravensdale. The cattle were thought to have been stolen from herds in South Armagh.

Another source, who was close to the investigation at Ravensdale, said at the time he had heard reports of cattle and sheep being boned out in the back of vans as a way of “keeping under the radar” from the authorities.

Either way, rustlers are getting more and more strategic in their approach. Farmers have told the Irish Farmers Journal that in a number of instances, the thieves had been visiting the herds late at night feeding them meal for a week so the cattle became familiar with them. This made it easier to move the cattle without arousing suspicion.

In most cases, the cattle are stolen in the middle of the night and the thieves target cattle on out farms. The gardaí have said before that they suspect that, in most cases, local knowledge is used in identifying herds to target.

That same local knowledge can be problem for the rustlers. Back in January, the names of four alleged rustlers were written on walls of public buildings in Monaghan. The names were allegedly written on walls by farmers in the area who had cattle stolen.

Response

The police on both sides of the border have stepped up their pursuit of rustlers and stolen cattle in recent months. In 2013, An Garda Síochána and the PSNI announced it was working closer with regard to investigating cattle thefts.

Last September, the two bodies ran a week-long joint investigation into cattle thefts. This involved a close monitoring of livestock trucks and trailers crossing as well as operating near the border.

In May, the PSNI recovered sheep which had been stolen from a farm in Mayo.

Last month, Gardaí from Monaghan and Louth gathered a group of farmers in Ardee mart where more than 40 cattle, which are believed to have been recovered after being stolen, were displayed. Some of the farmers who had stock stolen and were in attendance at Ardee mart struggled to identify the stock as it had been a year or more since the cattle were stolen.

It shows that the cross- border efforts are working, but it remains to be seen if the authorities can get on top of the increasingly sophisticated efforts of the criminals who are robbing from farmers.

One insurance company has finally recognised the financial loss for farmers resulting from the theft of livestock. In April, FBD launched a livestock cover policy specifically aimed at covering the losses farmers incur from livestock being stolen.

Other countries such as the Unites States and Australia, both of which have rustling problems, have long offered farmers rustling protection policies. FBD said it has had strong interest from farmers since it launched the new policy.