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Amid growing frustration among beef farmers, the beef forum will convene for the eighth time in Agriculture House on Tuesday.
There is mounting criticism from farmers that this gathering of industry bodies, Government officials, semi-State bodies and farm organisations has become a talking shop with no real tangible actions arising out of meetings.
Climate change is one of the issues to be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting and some have questioned whether this is the right forum to be discussing climate change.
The Irish Farmers Journal spoke to some of the main farming organisations on Monday to see what they would see as a successful outcome from this week’s meeting.
IFA - suckler supports
IFA livestock chair Angus Woods said that the IFA will be demanding that Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed makes real and tangible progress in advancing key issues for beef farmers.
He said the IFA has requested additional items be added to the agenda, including cattle prices and returns for winter finishers, Mercosur, increased supports for suckler cows and monitoring of carcase classification, trim and weights by Department of Agriculture officers in factories.
Woods said these are the current and relevant issues affecting beef farmers at this time and must be dealt with by the Minister.
He added that the Minister must honour his commitment to deliver on the provision of agricultural officers on classification, trim and weights at the meat plants, which is long overdue. He said the issue is costing farmers heavily and further delays by the Minister are no longer acceptable.
ICSA - reform of the grid system
ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham said the ICSA will be calling for reform of the current grid payment system.
“When this grid was introduced in 2009, beef was around the €3.00/kg mark. Since then, we have seen beef rising to €4.00/kg. However, the difference in subclasses has remained at a 6c/kg differential between subclasses,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
The ICSA is calling for a 4c/kg increase in the subclass payment to bring the differential to 10c per subclass. Graham also pointed out that the current cameras in use in factories are using 20-year-old technology and that these needed to be upgraded to HD cameras as a matter of urgency.
ICMSA - root and branch review of QPS
ICMSA chair Pat McCormack is calling for a root and branch review of the Quality Payment System (QPS) grid.
"We as an organisation have never felt that the current payment system has been fit for purpose and with a higher percentage of our beef now coming from the dairy herd, the current grid is taking money out of farmers’ pockets,” he said.
“ICMSA members have been very vocal about the issue of a quality assured farm, having passed an inspection, not being able to attain a quality assurance payment on all animals that leave the farm," said McCormack.
“The industry has been successful in confusing farmers by connecting the quality assurance payment with the grid system and this again is having a negative impact on our producers. If the farm is quality assured, all animals should be.”
Follow farmersjournal.ie for updates and reaction from the Beef Forum on Tuesday.
Beef forum has failed farmers and the sector
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