The Beef Plan Movement’s Tipperary chair Joe Trehy has returned to picket outside the ABP factory in Cahir following an incident on Tuesday.

The incident involved Trehy and another man driving a jeep and trailer and occurred at the entrance to the factory where Beef Plan Movement members and farmers have been protesting since Monday.

Trehy told the Irish Farmers Journal that he was back at the picket with a “fairly sore” back because “we just have to pedal on, we can’t let this go now. It’s do or die at this stage. This time next year, there’s a lot of us will just get out of sucklers because we can’t accept this,” the Fethard suckler farmer said.

Fair share

Ken O’Neill, treasurer of the Tipperary committee, said that beef farmers are not getting a fair share of the retail price of beef.

He said Larry Goodman’s ABP plant is paying €3.45/kg while “the same kilo of beef is actually costing us about €5.45/kg to produce. The simple maths of that is wrong.”

He said protesters were willing to stay as “until we get what we need, so be it”.

Over 30 months

When asked about the haulier’s case that he was delivering farmers’ cattle that were about to go over 30 months, the pair dismissed the 30-month rule as “total rubbish” and “just another hoop to have us jump through”.

They said that supermarket customers surveyed by the Beef Plan did not have any preference for under-30-month beef, even though they were told that supermarkets’ customers demanded it.

At the time the Irish Farmers Journal observed the protest, two trucks and one jeep and trailer were delayed before entering the factory to deliver cattle.

Gardaí at the site told the protesters they could make their case to drivers delivering cattle and ask them to turn away but they could not stop them entering the factory.

One driver who inched his vehicle forward while the protesters were in front of his vehicle was told to be “very careful”.

Superintendent Denis Whelan from Cahir said the gardaí’s duty was to maintain public order and peace.

“We are not here to get involved in the dispute but we have to make sure that the public’s safety is protected,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

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