A west Cork farmer discovered 12t of his fertiliser stock had been damaged last Thursday night. He found 24 half-tonne bags of fertiliser slashed from top to bottom. The Bandon area farmer, who didn’t wish to be named, said: “The bags were stacked on pallets two high and the bags on top and bottom were cut. The ties on the upper row were cut as well, so all the bags on top fell down.

“Whoever did it would have been familiar with the yard layout. They came in through a field - we found two sets of footprints there. We contacted the gardaí. This is vandalism.”