There has been an overwhelming response by Co Wexford farmers to an appeal to donate cattle feed for Co Clare farmers who have been badly hit by fodder scarcity caused by the poor weather.
Farmers from Wexford have been donating straw, hay and silage to help Clare farmers feed their stock in the coming weeks.
Mr Bertie O'Connor, the Bunclody-based farmer who had sought help from his countymen for Clare, had expected about 1,000 bales of fodder.
"I have already had to revise that figure upwards because it looks to me that the Wexford men will deliver more than twice that amount," he said in Enniscorthy yesterday.
"We have five collection points to assemble the donations and there has been a huge response, some from farmers who can barely afford it.
"I am proud to be a farmer when I look around me and see the generosity of these people, who are mainly small farmers. It has restored my faith in human nature and in the farming community after all the horror stories that the western farmers were being exploited by their own." It was Mr O'Connor's idea to get the fodder over to Clare and he made the suggestion at an Irish Farmers' Association meeting in Bunclody about 10 days ago.
"I contacted Clare Marts in Ennis and they are transporting the fodder free to centres in Clare. Teagasc advisers will decide who will get the fodder and they are working with the local vets," he said.
"The response has been so good that we now have a transport problem and it will be Tuesday before we get most of this stuff moved over. About 50 per cent is straw and the remainder, hay and silage bales." "There have been very negative things said about farmers exploiting other farmers but it appears, at least in Wexford, that the spirit of helping your neighbour still survives," he said.
Mr John Kane, a Teagasc adviser in Co Clare, said the donation was very welcome and would go to the farmers most in need.
"There is still a deficit of fodder here in Clare and a debt problem as well for farmers who cannot afford to buy substitute feeding," he said.
"One of the problems is that the condition of cattle on the poorer farms on wet soils is so bad that they cannot sell them to raise money to buy fodder for the remaining animals." Last week, farmers from Co Waterford donated fodder for colleagues in Co Limerick and this week, farmers in Laois/Offaly will collect fodder for distribution in Co Mayo.
Other east coast counties are planning "twinning operations" with other western counties.