Last week’s resounding election victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party brought good news for the Irish beef industry.

A cross-agency investigation is underway following the theft of beef carcasses which has raised fears unsafe meat will enter the market.

A container with a consignment of beef carcases has been stolen from a Northern Ireland food business.

Meat processor ABP said today it will increase the base price of beef cattle for delivery to its plants from next Monday.

The Irish Farmers Association has said it is disappointed to walk away from today's Beef Market Taskforce meeting without a price increase for beef farmers.

Injunctions remain in place against two protestors dating back to the summer’s beef protests - and remain a stumbling block to any talks on resolving the impasse between farmers and processors.

Farmers have left the St Stephens Green area of Dublin city centre following a protest that caused traffic chaos for more than 24 hours.

The United Nations “are not wrong” in urging people eat less meat and dairy, said Joe Healy, president of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA).

With beef prices at their lowest level in over a decade, it is obvious among those with cattle to finish this winter that there are more questions being raised than ever before about the economics of investing in feeding stock to slaughter next spring.

Nine blockades have now ended at meat factories amid the ongoing beef price controversy.

Pressure is mounting on beef farmers across the country to step away from the picket lines across the country after one prominent blockade in Meath came to an end.

There has been a collapse in confidence levels among farmers and their families, with Brexit, the bitter beef crisis, and the Government’s depiction of the sector as “the cartoon ‘baddies” of climate change” fuelling growing pessimism.

Major doubt hangs over a major deal between farmers and meat processors as independent farmers said they had agreed to nothing.

Talks aimed at ending the ongoing impasse between beef farmers and producers will get underway tomorrow morning, as retailers moved to assure customers there will be no shortages of Irish product on supermarket shelves.

Hopes for a breakthrough in the ongoing beef crisis have been raised after agriculture minister Micheal Creed met representatives from both sides of the dispute.

The stand-off at the meat factories is not just about beef, it’s about who owns our land.

The decision by the Department of Agriculture to designate the Beef Plant Movement, a group of protesting farmers, as as a “producer organisation” is a welcome development in the ongoing beef crisis.

There is disagreement among stakeholders in the beef crisis around when talks aimed at resolving the dispute should resume.

Meetings are due to get underway this evening between the Agriculture Minister, farm organisations and the meat factories in an effort to resolve the ongoing beef dispute.

High Court proceedings that could have resulted in the imprisonment of people protesting outside two beef processing plants have been struck out following an agreement between the factory owners and the protestors.

The Agriculture Minister Michael Creed has confirmed that he will facilitate new talks aimed at resolving the ongoing beef dispute.

The beef protest has revealed that Irish farming is something of a one-trick pony (or a two-trick pony at best), with only milk production offering reasonable prospects of regular income, volatile though it may be from year to year.

A Chinese delegation has visited a meat plant in Co. Roscommon.

Meat processors continued legal efforts to stop protests at their facilities, with Meat Industry Ireland admitting that some export markets have not be served in recent days due to the blockages at processing facilities.

Dawn Meats has temporarily laid off several hundred people at three processing factories.

A farmer has been taken to hospital after being hit by a lorry at a protest at a beef factory in Co. Meath.

Farmers today blocked the entrance to the APB Meat Plant in Bandon, West Cork to highlight their frustration with dropping meat prices.

The proposed beef deal between the European Union and South American countries “is unsatisfactory” for Ireland, Minister Regina Doherty has told the Dáil.

"Scares" around the quality of South American food will trigger a “red button” that results in a ban on products imported from that firm or region under safeguards built into the new Mercosur trade deal.

The country's largest farming association has sought an urgent meeting with the Taoiseach amid growing fears for the beef sector following the Mercosur deal Beef Plan.

The Mercosur deal would allow for greater imports from Latin American countries to the EU, including cheaper beef.

As beef prices at factories continued to come under pressure this week, the pace of the downturn coming so early in the year took finishers by surprise.

Livestock farmers countrywide will discuss the €100 million Brexit beef fund at a series of eight regional meetings starting Tuesday.

The Government is being urged to match a new €50m EU fund to support the country's beef sector.

Farmers have welcomed the launch of Glanbia Ireland and Kepak’s new Twenty20 Beef Club, offering members a guaranteed market for their heifers and steers.

The proposed introduction of tariffs by Britain on Irish exports would lead to 'Armageddon' in Irish farming, the Dáil heard.