€40+ for a round bale of straw ‘is scandalous’
VULNERABLE farmers in County Galway are being charged around four times the ‘going rate’ for bales of straw as the fodder crisis continues, according to a local councillor
Some suppliers of fodder from the south and south-east are taking advantage of farmers in the west who do not have any feed available to them, Ballinasloe councillor, Dermot Connolly said this week.
The matter came before a meeting of Ballinasloe Municipal Council when Cllr. Connolly – a farmer from Nutfield Cross, near Ballinasloe – expressed his outrage over the prices being charged.
He said that he knew farmers who had paid €40 for bales of straw that had come up from the south-east and described this as “scandalous”.
“Farmers without fodder are in a very poor situation and some are even letting their cattle out to graze what is not there.
“But for suppliers to hike up and take advantage of farmers in a crisis situation is not on. They are manipulating a situation and it is not in the interest of fairness. It is just profiteering,” Cllr Connolly added.
The Sinn Fein councillor said that a lot of farmers with excess fodder were helping out their neighbours and that this was a good thing to see in rural Ireland.
He said that this was a very honourable thing to do but he knew of farmers who did not have such support and had turned to the suppliers from the South-East out of desperation.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.