Drystock farmers were visibly frustrated at the Connacht regional IFA meeting in Claremorris on Monday night, where they vented their anger over the rapid fall in beef and sheep prices in factories, a lack of supports for their sector and the mooted reduction in the suckler herd contained in the Teagasc MACC report.

The meeting was called by IFA regional chair Pat Murphy on foot of lamb prices running €1/kg behind the same period last year, while beef prices have collapsed in recent weeks.

The recent Teagasc modelling of a 29% reduction in suckler cow numbers by 2030, with an increase in dairy cow numbers by 8%, was also debated.

Farmers in attendance pointed to the fact that the lack of supports for the drystock sector alone would see a mass exodus of suckler farmers in the west.

MEPs Colm Markey and Maria Walsh both fielded questions on the night.

Markey stated that “Mercosur is a serious concern in the next six months’’ with the European presidency in the hands of Spain, which wants to forge trade deals with Brazil.

Markey claimed that the high standard and traceability of Irish and EU products could not be met with by Brazil, with this being the main aid to blocking the trade deal.

However, the MEP also highlighted that trade deals between the UK, Ireland’s main importer of beef and lamb, and New Zealand and Australia posed a much greater threat.

“We can use the protection of standards with Mercosur. It’s much more difficult with Australia and New Zealand. They will hit the targets.”

“It’s about time we need to call out this minister and try and put it up to him to stop him from talking out of both sides of his mouth. Bord Bia was a requirement on SCEP, and he now says there may have been a way of keeping it out of the scheme.

“I would love if we could live by the market and not live off supports.

“What do people expect if we can only make €7/ewe? It’s high time we hit for Donegal and get the sheep and suckler farmers out up there. The minister is playing ducks and drakes with us, pulling the wool over our eyes.

We had meetings in Tuam, Athlone, Tinahely and Roscommon and we talked about plan B. We need to get to that plan middling quick.”

“There are real challenges around the family farm. Everything we spoke about tonight is challenging the family farm structure.

“The Government is not getting adequate messages from the people of the country.

“The people of this country must recalibrate the relationship that it has with food.

“We [drystock farmers] need money. As we approach the budget, we must concentrate our efforts on sourcing money for agriculture.

“There are enormous challenges being inflicted on farmers in Roscommon. We are the backbone of Irish society. The Government must support us now.”

“We were promised market access to China with EID tagging, but the criteria that is there is that there is to be no lamb over 12 months old, no offal, and that the lamb has to come from the farm it was born on, which rules out any store lambs bought in the west of Ireland.

“Minister McConalogue has stated that there were no applications from factories for US market approval, yet I have spoken to factories that are waiting six months for approval.”

“The future is with farmers at the centre of it, not those outside of agriculture dictating.

“It’s disappointing that the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) money went to organic farming, while beef and sheep farmers need to be supported.

“BAR is one-off funding, there is a need for annualised money to secure the long-term future of the drystock sector.

“Funding for the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) needs to be sourced outside of CAP funding. If we voted against the NRL, then it would send out the message that farmers do not support nature.”