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Thu 11 Nov 2002Farm groups angered by scale of cuts ordered on commonage sheepSheep farmers who have been ordered by the Department of Agriculture and Food to reduce the number of sheep they are keeping on commonage have reacted angrily to the compulsory destocking notices.The notices were issued about 10 days ago to over 6,000 farmers, many of them outside the five western seaboard counties where the compulsory scheme was first introduced in 1998. The aim of the scheme is to protect the environment from overgrazing.