Louth farmer Aidan McDonnell has said he was in “total shock” to learn that eight steers were stolen from his farm last week.

The eight cattle, a mix of Charolais and Limousin, were taken from the Allardstown, Knockbridge, area of the county at approximately 11.30pm last Tuesday night.

Four of the animals had only been purchased the night before at Carnaross Mart. McDonnell paid an average price of €1,320 for the four steers. The other four were factory-ready and were weighing in the region of 850kg each. Four of his similar animals were slaughtered the previous week and averaged €1,720.

“They [the thieves] obviously had it all well planned out,” McDonnell said. “The cattle were well off the road and were in two separate fields. They weren’t mixed at all. There were five in one field and nine in another, so it wasn’t the easiest thing to do to get them loaded. Four of them had only landed on the farm the night previous so they were still a bit on edge,” he added.

This is the second reported cattle theft in Louth in the last four months. In July, Anthony Duffy from Ravensdale had five cattle stolen with an estimated value of €7,500.

Gardaí in Ardee are investigating the theft and can be contacted on 041-6853222.

Meanwhile, 47 cattle seized from a farm in the Castleblayney area of Co Monaghan earlier this month, have been destroyed at a facility in Limerick.

The cattle had a number of issues, including missing tags and serious concerns over disease control.