The numbers coming out show the level of anger, frustration and also worry that farmers are facing. Some farmers haven’t enough money to pay mounting bills and they are genuinely worried about what they are going to do. Farmers cannot keep going like this.

– Padraig O’Connor, Roscommon Beef Plan chair

If I want to stay in farming I have to get a proper price for my animals. I can’t keep losing money. I got €3.60/kg two weeks ago for heifers. I had them for two years. Fed them meal, had them in the shed and I got €3.60/kg. They didn’t even come into €1,200 and I paid €700 for them.

– James Murphy, suckler and beef farmer, Co Meath

I was just taking one animal to the factory and left home at 3am to get the factory to try and avoid the protesters. But they were there and put a placard on the windscreen as I was driving in. They called me a scab and a cowardly bastard. I called the gardaí in the factory yard and made sure they were there before leaving.

– Anonymous farmer Munster

It feels a lot longer than seven days of a protest. It’s been a long, hard week. People are tired, they’ve got very little sleep and I’m tired myself. But people are still determined to stay here and try to get what we came here for in the first place and that’s a fair price for our product.

– Helen O’Sullivan, Cork Beef Plan chair

We’re hoping for talks with Meat Industry Ireland to get some resolve. It’s unfortunate that it had to come to this. It’s a matter of trying to get a fairer share of the margin. People with sucklers are in dire straits. Some lorry men have crossed the picket, some farmers are turning back.

– John Meehan, suckler farmer, Manorcunningham, Co Donegal

I have a load of cattle I’ve been waiting three weeks to get in. I have repayments to meet –the bank wants its money. I need money. I held off sending them last week but I want my money.

– Farmer waiting outside ABP Cahir

I have 30 cattle at home. They went from €3.75/kg down when the factories pulled the prices. I lost €3,000 on those cattle. Ask anyone else if they could afford to lose €3,000 in three weeks. We can’t keep taking these losses. This is a tipping point. We have to make a decision to keep going or get out.

– Michael Frisby, Waterford farmer protesting outside ABP Waterford

I have four bulls in the trailer. I knew these lads were protesting last week but these bulls will go over 16 months this week. If I don’t kill them now they will go off the grid, I will lose the QA bonus of 12c/kg and 18c/kg for the U grade.

– Farmer waiting outside ABP Cahir

We are urging farmers not to bring their cattle to the factory and stand with us instead. We’re at a point of no return now and we’re not going away until we get a resolution to this problem.

– Padraig Duffy, Cavan Beef Plan Movement chair

No cattle have passed through in the last eight or nine days. The protest is going well, numbers are increasing big time. Meat Industry Ireland is still making the money, farmers aren’t. Every farmer – regardless of affiliation – is welcome to join the line. We’re all on the one road for the survival of the beef and sheep farmers of rural Ireland.

– Gerry Costello, Galway suckler farmer at Ballinasloe picket

I’d appeal to the factories to look at it from our situation as well. We’ve been good to the factories over the years, we’ve always filled numbers for them. We need them to come out and talk. We need a rise in price and we need them to come out and talk. Otherwise I can only see this getting worse.

– Dave Murphy , co-chair Limerick Beef Plan Movement