Meat factories under attack as bull beef farmers ‘left high and dry’

Meat factories are coming under attack by farmers who claim they were encouraged to increase their bull beef output, the market for which has all but disappeared.

ICSA beef chairman Edmond Phelan said: “The meat factories misled farmers by encouraging them into Friesian bull beef two years ago, and now leaving them high and dry. The bull beef backlog is now a crisis and the future of beef farming is again on a knife-edge.”

Mr Phelan questioned the commitment of factories to Irish beef farming and suggested that many beef farmers are now on the edge of despair as they look at pens of bulls that are unsaleable and rapidly approaching two years old.