Thousands of farmers with their tractors and placards face hundreds of police and soldiers with their vans, armoured vehicles, riot shields, guns, water cannon and barbed wire barricades. The EU quarter of Brussels is blocked this morning as EU farmers stage the largest protest in years over falling prices and missing cashflow.

Into this melee must come 28 farm ministers, an EU Commissioner and their press teams for a meeting kicking off at 2.30pm. Farm leaders have already addressed the hundreds of journalists who are here and will address their protesting colleagues later this morning. There’s a clear sense here that the European Commission recognises the income difficulties in the sector.

EU farmers are speaking with one voice today. It happens to be a very loud one – some 2,000 tractors of every colour parked outside the EU headquarters and blaring their horns. The expectation is that the assembled farm ministers will put a lot of pressure on the Commission today for measures to address the collapse in farm prices.

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney arrives here late morning and will address the Irish Farmers Journal and other Irish media. The IFA is here also, with every county and sector represented – its entire national council is taking part in the protest. The ICMSA is also present.

The action is live on Twitter today. Here are just a selection of the #farmaction tweets:

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