BVD cash is too late for most PI farms

NEW BVD (Bovine Viral Diarrhoea) compensation payments – announced last week by the Dept. of Agriculture – should have been in place from the beginning of the eradication programme, according to the IFA.

Farmers who had supported the programme from the very start – and who had taken ‘an enormous financial hit’ – will rightly feel aggrieved at last week’s announcement, said Bert Stewart, IFA National Animal Health Chairman.

He said that in recognition of the losses suffered by those farmers, there should have been a retrospective element built into the new compensation package announced last week by Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed.

Galway IFA Livestock Committee Chairman, Michael Flynn, said that the previous Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, ‘had a lot to answer for’ in terms of how the scheme was set up and the lack of adequate compensation provided.

“If this had been handled properly at the start – back in 2013 – we’d probably be completely clear of BVD by now. We welcome the increases in compensation announced last week, but this really should have been there from the very start,” said Michael Flynn.

The main points of the new BVD Compensation Scheme are:

■ DAIRY: €150 if the female dairy and dairy cross calves are removed within 21 days (3 weeks) of the first positive or inconclusive test.

■ €35 if the female dairy and dairy cross calves are removed between day 22 and 35 (the 4th and 5th week) of the first positive or inconclusive test.

■ It is also proposed to offer €30 towards the disposal of the PI (persistently infected) dairy bull through the abattoir or knackery within 21 days of the first positive or inconclusive test.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.