Dairy farmer Louise Crowley, who is from outside Croom, Co Limerick, has said it was very daunting as a young female farmer having to confront three men who trespassed on her land.

The trespassers were walking three lurchers and refused to leave the farm when confronted by the dairy farmer last Sunday 14 November.

“I asked them to leave and told them that I don’t let anyone walk dogs on our land,” Crowley said.

When confronted, they said they had been given permission to walk dogs across this land and told Crowley to “calm down” along with cursing at her.

She asked the men several times to leave her farm, to which they replied: “We’ll go in our own time.”

Neospora

“I asked them politely to please leave the farm. I explained that we have had a couple of abortions recently and neospora is a big issue, but they didnt care.”

Crowley told the Irish Farmers Journal that two of the dogs were tied up with baling twine and one was running loose.

The Limerick dairy farmer took videos and photos of the men walking along her lane for proof to show the gardaí. While doing so, one of the men remarked: “If you wanted my phone number love you could have just asked.”

Gardaí in Bruff, Co Limerick, were helpful, Crowley said, but could not do anything for her, as there is no legislation to help farmers deal with trespassers on farms.

The advice she received from the gardaí was, in future, ring the gardaí for a squad car to come out to the farm first before confronting any trespassers.

Social media

Crowley took to her social media platforms to express her rage at what had happened and said she received 120 messages from her followers saying they had experienced the same thing on their farms.

She concluded by saying that this has been happening more and more on her farm and her neighbours' farms every weekend over the last six to eight weeks.