The images created in Irish agriculture in this first year of the new millennium, will last for a very long time. It was, without doubt an annus horribilis.
The most enduring is likely to be the slaughter of livestock in Co Louth in the dark days of March, when it looked as if Ireland would be overwhelmed by foot-and-mouth disease. The next most enduring image must surely be the television pictures of carcases of perfectly good beef animals being sprayed with purple dye in meat plants to destroy them in the EU's Purchase for Destruction Scheme.
There will be the images too of the beaches, hotels and restaurants empty of tourists as the September 11th attacks delivered another body blow to that industry already reeling from the foot-and-mouth crisis and ended up losing half a billion pounds.
And at close of the year, the images will be those of the beet farmers' protest outside the State's two sugar processing plants which were shut down for almost a month by a dispute over prices being paid to the producers.
The year 2001 was the year of the double crisis and without doubt it was the foot-and-mouth outbreaks in Britain, then in the North and later in the Republic, which dominated the early part of the year. Within days of the outbreak of the disease in England on February 19th, it became clear that sheep from the area had made their way into the North. Despite an immediate ban on the movement of animals between Britain and Northern Ireland, the disease had already reached the island and by March 1st, Northern Ireland had its first confirmed case, in Meigh, Co Armagh.
Fortunately, a surveillance zone had been established to the south of the Meigh farm which straddled the Border and the resources of the State were thrown at keeping the disease out. That meant the cancellation of cultural, religious and sporting events across the country. St Patrick's Day was rescheduled, international rugby games postponed and racing called off.
Farming activity suffered horribly, with severe restrictions on normal trading activities. Marts and sales were cancelled and a system of permits for movement was put in place.
However, the movement of animals which had been going on between Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic, meant only a miracle could prevent a case south of the Border.
Because miracles are rare, by March 22nd the disease had been confirmed at Proleek, Co Louth and within days the grim task of clearing the entire sheep population, many of the cattle and all the wildlife of the Cooley peninsula, had got underway.
Across the rest of the State there was almost a daily scare as samples from sick animals were sent for analysis to the Pirbright Laboratory in London for investigation. There were to be four more confirmed cases in Northern Ireland before the problem was got under control there and by June 22nd, Ireland had regained its foot-and-mouth free status which allowed it to trade with the rest of Europe again.
The foot-and-mouth crisis had masked another crisis, the BSE crisis, which had struck Europe in November 2000 when meat from an BSE-infected farm in France was sold into the Carrafour chain. The publicity generated by this story spread across Europe like wildfire and within three weeks there had been a virtual collapse of beef consumption there. Non-EU countries, immediately imposed bans on European beef.
In order to prevent a complete collapse of the market, the Commission introduced a scheme which allowed beef to be purchased and destroyed to keep markets stable. By the time the scheme finished operating in June, over 400,000 perfectly healthy cattle had been slaughtered and the beef stained with a purple dye. This exercise cost the Irish taxpayer nearly £200 million. Meanwhile, the BSE problem continues to impact heavily on beef exports from Ireland as we are still locked out of key non-EU markets like Egypt. While a political decision to reopen this market has been taken, no product has been moving there and it is unlikely there will be trade this year. The crisis has also meant the industry must begin preparing cattle for slaughter at under 30 months of age, as customers now demand young beef.
Meanwhile, the number of cases of the disease being found here continue to rise and are expected to reach 250 before the end of the year. This is the highest figure on record since the disease was first identified here in 1989.
Despite all the negative things which happened to the industry, by the end of the year, most farmers have survived quite well with increases in sheep and pig prices. Cereals have done quite well and the beef industry, which was facing ruin, is holding up, as Britain has doubled the amount of beef it purchased from Ireland this year because of a shortfall in its own production because of foot-and-mouth.