Gardaí in Bagenalstown are appealing to members of the public for information following a substantial robbery of farm equipment in the Leighlinbridge area.
The owner of the equipment is a well-known agricultural contractor from the area, and without it, he is unable to till the crops on his land.
The items were unique to a John Deere self-propelled sprayer, and include a yellow and green dome-shaped GPS receiver, and a monitor which sits inside the cab.
Two other dome-shaped GPS receivers were also stolen from two other tractors on the farm.
Garda Sean Delaney from Bagenalstown Garda Station said “It’s not only the livelihood of one agricultural farmer that has been affected by this robbery; it’s also the livelihoods of tillage farmers in the surrounding areas.”
He continued “No other sprayer can work in those fields”; “We’re in an awful predicament here, where there’s thousands of acres of crops at the moment, that cannot be sprayed.”