John O’Neill has been milking cows close to Cahersiveen since the 1970s.

“We have always maintained a closed herd for biosecurity reasons. We breed our own replacements from AI,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“We were hit out of the blue with TB in September 2016 when we had 16 reactors. There was another one in February 2017 and we got clear in June, but in early December we had 16 more reactors,” O’Neill said.

“Now we have lost all our replacements, as well as 10 cows. We have lost about 40% of the herd in total.”

Being locked up has created a lot of extra work.

“We used to sell all our bull calves and kept our replacement heifers and that was the way we operated since we started. Our system was strictly milking cows. We had over 50 calves so we had to make alternative facilities,” he explained.

“But you have to try and be positive. This would be worse if it happened a young person starting out. At this stage in our lives, we will do our best. I don’t think deer are the problem, I think it’s more badgers in this part of the country.”

He added: “This needs co-operation and goodwill on all sides to sort this TB issue.”