Farmers in the southwest pay the most for the collection, with cattle between 24 and 48 months costing €125.

IFA animal health chair Bert Stewart has called these prices “totally unacceptable” and has met officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in order to raise the issue with them.

He says the current situation with prices costing significantly more in the southeast than in any other region in the country is “reaching crisis point and cannot continue”.

Systems abroad

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal this week, Stewart said he has submitted extensive details to the Department of a much cheaper system for animal collection which exists in Holland.

He says the system there is much more cost-efficient. “There is just one contractor providing the service, it’s licensed, subsidised and regulated by the Government.”

The animal health chair highlighted the difficulty farmers in the southeast face to get fallen animals collected, in particular sheep, which many farmers often have to deliver to the collection site themselves.

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