Last week’s beef agreement has been accepted by all the main farming groups as the best deal available at this time. Some farmers on the picket line were slow to agree.

Who’s right and who’s wrong? Or is everybody right?

The main points from the agreement that will translate immediately back to the farm gate are the introduction of a new bonus scheme of 8c/kg for steers and heifers aged between 30 and 36 months, which meet all existing in-spec criteria.

The current in-spec bonus, or quality assurance payment, as most of us refer to it, will be increased from 12c/kg to 20c/kg for steers and heifers, with no mention of young bulls. A new in-spec bonus of 12c/kg will be introduced for steers and heifers under 30 months in the categories o- and fat score 4+. The 70-day residency rule is to be reduced to 60 days on the last farm.

There is also to be a scientific review of the Quality Payment Grid by Teagasc, starting with the pricing structure of the grid on the basis of meat yield/conformation, to be completed by the end of October. The new beef market taskforce is to provide leadership to develop a sustainable future for the sector and to provide a platform for strategic engagement between farmers, stakeholders including retailers, and regulatory authorities.

Promotion

There is also mention of Bord Bia intensifying promotional activity, greater transparency in the form of what the retailer actually wants and needs and greater market scrutiny.

But while all these developments are welcome, at a base price of €3.45/kg or €3.50/kg, does it really make a blind bit of difference? This is the main issue the protesters had.

Meat Industry Ireland senior director Cormac Healy stated in last week’s Irish Farmers Journal that Irish factories are paying for cattle at the average price being paid in all our EU export markets.

But if Irish factories were paying twice the EU average for beef and that price is below the cost of production, what good is it?

That being said, I think protesters were right to stand down from their pickets.

Every man, woman and child who stood on the picket needs to be commended for highlighting the situation that Irish beef farmers find themselves in. Because of them, farm organisations sat around a table with processors and some form of progress has been made.

I know it’s far from what we want and need, but it’s a start and hopefully a step in the right direction. Continued protesting would have done more harm than good.

The amount of cattle needing to be slaughtered continues to rise, farmers with fit cattle were coming under obvious financial pressure and farmers who could not sell cattle were unable to replace them, with a knock-on effect in the store and weanling market.

Processors have continually warned that lack of supply could lead to the loss of key markets if they could not fill contracts. They said that customers would source beef somewhere else.

Whether this is scaremongering remains to be seen, but we must be careful not to cut our nose off to spite our face.

We need Bord Bia to step up to the mark and furiously and unapologetically promote the top-class product that we have. We need to find new markets and we need to increase consumption in the markets that we have.

That all rolls off the tongue very easily, but it not quite so easy to do. But they are the things that will see a real increase in price.