Farmers affected by extreme weather: Collection of fallen animals

Funding is being made available to:

(a) meet the costs of collection and disposal of fallen animals

(b) make hardship payments to farmers whose animals died as a result of the snow storm on 21 and 22 March 2013,

This information deals with the first of these first of these issues.

Who is eligible? Farmers who have been worst affected by the snow storm and who have fallen stock collected and disposed of by approved renderers during the period April 2-15 (this may be extended depending on the speed of the thaw).

What should farmers do? Farmers in eligible areas are to contact Rendering Plants, either Linergy Dungannon 028 8772 5020 or Foyle Proteins 028 7186 1120 to arrange collection of carcases.

Farmers should be as accurate as possible with details of numbers and species of animals and locations.

Eligibility will be based on postcode (against DARD list). The eligible areas will be posted on the DARD website and updated as required.

Currently the eligible areas are: BT25, BT31, BT33, BT34, BT35, BT36, BT40, BT43, BT44, BT54,

Farmers should NOT contact DARD to arrange collection of fallen stock

Farmers should move fallen stock to a point on the farm which has hard standing (concrete or tarmac) and which the collecting vehicle will be able to access (central yard, end of farm lane, etc).

A number of carcases may be moved to this point, and all carcases must be covered with a tarpaulin or similar so that it is not possible for dogs/foxes/birds to access them until they are collected. Carcases must be held securely in this way until they are collected.

What checks will be made? DARD will verify the losses of animals by supervising collections of animals. Animals collected without verification by DARD staff will not be eligible.

If there is uncertainty about eligibility, farmers should contact the DARD helpline, 0300 200 7852.

Meanwhile, members of the public are being advised not to approach or touch any dead animals they may come across. 
Instead the are being asked to contact the DARD helpline with details of the dead animal (species, number of animals, location).