DEAR SIR: It is with great concern that I am writing to you. Having followed with interest the progress from the start of the Greenfield site in Co Kilkenny, I believe the recent weather conditions have brought a number of concerns to a head.

Under the Animal Welfare Act 2013, it states that animals are to be kept and treated in a manner that safeguards the health and welfare of those animals.

On the Greenfield site, where there was no provision of cover during the worst weather event in recent times, eight animals were lost over four days. Milking was delayed on Friday (the day after the red alert) due to the milking parlour being full of snow, along with cow walkways and cubicles. It is understandable that during this time, there were exceptional circumstances to be faced on most farms, but as farmers, are we going to accept that this was a once-off tragedy, or should we be querying why this site is being lauded as an example for us all to aspire to, to cut costs and improve efficiency?

Due to the open-air system that is in place here, the question has to be asked: did these animals have anywhere to lie when the snow was a metre deep on the ground? Did they have dry, clean fodder at all times, when they have no walls to protect it from the elements?

Are the five freedoms of a cow being met on the Greenfield site? Not just in the last few days, but in the varying seasons that we experience on a near daily basis? It would be remiss of me not to commend the staff on their hard work, but could a lot of hardship and suffering of both animal and human have been avoided?