Demands to set up an emergency committee to deal with the fodder crisis have been dismissed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

The British food safety watchdog has launched an investigation into how beef on sale in the UK and Ireland contained traces of horse and pig DNA.

OUTPUT-BASED farm payments are a thing of the past, to be replaced by a controversial “flat rate” per-hectare payment model, EU Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos confirmed at yesterday’s Irish Farmer’s Association (IFA) annual general meeting.

FARMERS in the REPS4 scheme will get a 10% cut in payments, while the qualifying criteria for those farming in disadvantaged areas will also change under measures announced in yesterday’s budget.

THE 2007 FBD Young Farmer of the Year is Bryan Daniels, a 27-year-old dairy farmer from Kilmoganny, Co Kilkenny.

Teagasc, the State’s farm advisory board, are to hold a meeting in Carlow later today to discuss a relaxation of the controversial nitrates directive.

Farmers are calling for a meeting with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Agriculture over the issue of compensation to beet growers.

Businessmen in Dublin tonight condemned a protest by farmers which threatens traffic chaos in the city later this week following the arrival of hundreds of tractors.

The row over the 30-day restriction on annual movements from farm to mart is over.

The Chairman of the Dairy Committee of the Irish Farmer’s Association has called on the Government to liase with officials in the North to adopt an all-Ireland approach to animal health protection.