Northern-Ireland farmers now hit by dioxin

Farmers in Northern Ireland must destroy 7,000 cattle and meat is being banned from supermarket shelves, as a result of the recent cattle and pig feed contamination with dioxins.

Estimated damage to the farming business is up to five million pounds (€6.34m). This will put a lot of farmers out of business.

Northern Ireland pork has now been declared safe, however the news that so many cattle are affected has come as a shock to farmers, who purchased the animal feed in good faith.

Graham Furey, who is president of the Ulster Farmers' Union, said that the farmers were waiting on results from tests carried out by the Food Standards Agency.

Farmers have been feeding their cattle over the last few weeks, unsure if the meat will be able to enter the food chain.

Compensation
Furey said that the main issue now concerned the question of compensation for the farmers if their animals have to be put down.

Alternatives to an Executive payment include accessing compensation from the government in the Republic or pursuing whoever is found to be at fault for contaminating the feed.

Editor AllAboutFeed