A Ballina farmer has donated silage bales to the North West Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NWSPCA) who will auction them off to raise funds.
Tom Moyles from the Co. Mayo town has donated 10 silage bales, from last year’s cut, to the charity.
The clock is now ticking for anyone who may want to make a bid on the bales as the auction will officially close on Sunday, May 19.
Speaking to Agriland, Rachel Slater from the NWSCPA fundraising team said that the farmer got in touch with the non-profit organisation via their Facebook page to offer it the bales.
The bidding, which is taking place on the charity’s social media site, began at €140 and is currently sitting at €250.
The charity has advised that the owner of the winning bid will have to collect the bales from Breaffy on the outskirts of Ballina as no transport is included.
The NWSPCA, which has been in operation for 20 years, said while it was very grateful for the donation of bales from the farmer it always encourages donations from any source to support its work.
“Because of the increase of animals being neglected, COVID happening, all of those things, our bills have gone up.
“We’re in debt of over €80,000 to €90,000 per year.
“Last year, we set up an iDonate page and it’s been quite successful. We’re nearly at €30,000 now,” Slater said.
She hopes the bales donation from the Ballina farmer will encourage other people to also support the charity.
“We run a couple of things over the year, at Christmas and other times to just try and keep us afloat.
“I thought it was a lovely thing for the farmer to do and hopefully more stuff like this comes in,” she added.
Silage season
Meanwhile as first-cut silage is being harvested and stored on many farms across the country, Teagasc has advised that farmers should ask whether the way they stack their silage bales is the correct method.
It has also advised farmers to bear in mind conditionality rules under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) when stacking silage bales.
The rules relating to stacking silage bales are contained within Statutory Management Requirement 2 (SMR 2) Protection of Waters Against Pollution caused by Nitrates and came into force in 2023.
Conditionality relates to the climate and the environment, public health, animal health and plant health, and animal welfare.