Livestock chairman calls for profit to be put back into beef production
That’s the view of Irish Farmers’ Association Livestock Committee chairman Henry Burns, who has set out a number of priority issues.
He said these need to be addressed in the report of Beef Activation Group chairman Michael Dowling, which is scheduled to be presented to the Beef Forum round table by the end of the month.
Mr Burns said there is a need to see price benchmarking and transparency to ensure that farmers are getting full market price for their stock.
He said “the abuse of farmers’ trust” in the grid payment specification system for livestock has to stop to allow confidence to be rebuilt.
“Specifications cannot be open to change at the whim of factory bosses. The system has to accommodate our grass-based production systems and suckler cow herd. It must also incentivise rather than penalise producers for meeting quality assurance and market-spec requirements.”
Mr Burns said the IFA is also insisting that labelling concerns that have the potential to seriously disrupt the live export trade to Northern Ireland be addressed as a priority and action taken to reassure farmers that factories have no access to the cattle movement monitoring system.
On trade talks, he said it is critical that the Government gets on the pitch now to ensure that Europe does not sell out the beef and white meat sectors to a Mercosur deal being actively pursued at this time.
Meanwhile, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association president John Comer said the most obvious solution to the endemic problems around ensuring farmers got a fair price for their beef would be the setting up of a Beef Market Monitoring Agency similar to that announced by the EU last year for the dairy markets.
It was no longer acceptable or sensible for beef suppliers to be left completely at the whim of the factories, processors and retailers in terms of price and specifications.
He said it was vital for all parties — including, ultimately, the beef factories themselves — that some degree of predictability and viability be restored to the business of finishing cattle.
Mr Comer said the present system where farmers invested up to three years in producing cattle only to be told at the last minute that all the factory specifications had changed and their work was ‘down the drain’ was utterly unfair and would inevitably wreck beef production in Ireland.
ICSA beef chairman Edmond Phelan has also outlined key requirements for the new and improved beef price reporting proposed by Minister Simon Coveney as part of an effort to ensure there is greater price transparency for farmers. “We need to know the full range of prices paid by factories each week, including the special deals available to very big feedlot operators,” he said.
