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Ann Elliott called RTÉ’s Liveline, on Wednesday evening to tell Joe Duffy about the loss of one Angus and three Friesian in-calf heifers during ex-hurricane Ophelia.
Clearly upset, Ann recounted how the heifers had been electrocuted by fallen electrical cables in a field in Derrinturn, Co Kildare.
A lady in Derrinturn saw them going into a tree and seen them just keeling over. There was twenty-six in the field altogether, so I’m lucky I suppose that I didn’t have twenty-six fatalities
As a small farmer with a herd of twenty-six cows, the loss of four will have a significant impact financially on Ann’s farm.
Ann told the story of discovering the dead cattle in the field: ‘’I made a connection with two ESB workers at the side of the road, that were repairing another wire for somebody else, and I asked them to follow me to Derrinturn, and we went into the field and what we saw was just carnage.”
Many farmers will be able to relate to the emotional aspect of losing livestock, as Ann described the time and effort she’d placed in breeding home-bred heifers and getting them in-calf.
Ann told RTÉ: “I was devastated as you can understand, I’ve reared them from calves … I knew their mothers down through the years, so it’s devastating Joe, it’s not the loss it’s just the lovely animals gone.”
Rainfall warning for south and east
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