More than 200 farmers took to Tesco in Naas, Kildare last week to make their feelings known on the escalation of the beef price crisis. Beef farmers have endured more than 10 months of successive price cuts and the IFA has organised a series of protests aimed at highlighting the plight.

Caroline Farrell – Stradbally, Co Laois

“A better deal is needed for farmers, and a better deal is needed for beef prices. Our costs have been soaring and we can’t keep going on like this.

“The inputs have risen substantially and the price hasn’t covered that rise. It’s not just a matter of one farmer or one sector. The whole farming community needs to pull together on this one.”

Andrew Harding – Roscrea, Tipperary

“We are here to show support for all farmers who have been hit by price cuts over the last year. I don’t finish cattle but I’m a suckler farmer and those beef farmers are the ones that are buying my weanlings.

“Not all the cattle can be exported to Italy or Spain. Some have to go through for finishing, so when they’re hit, we’re hit too.

“It would seem that the factories and the retailers haven’t been hurt as much as the farmers and that’s just not right.”

John Curran – Kells, Meath

“The whole thing has been made worse by the fact that we had a desperate bad spring in 2013 with the fodder crisis which left us with extra bills to pay. We had hoped that the price in 2014 would help ease the pain, but it hasn’t.

“We have taken to the protest that more needs to be done. We need the IFA to press the factories hard for better prices and also to get more live cattle exported out of the country. That’s the only way to get prices right again.”

Denis Large – Thurles, Co Tipperary

“The suckler cow herd is being decimated. In my area alone, there will be 150 less suckler cows next year as people just don’t see a future in it. I mean, why would you want to get into it? Suckler farmers are producing animals at a loss, yet the retailers continue to make money off the back of our hard work. More needs to be done to get live cattle out of the country. We can send cattle to any other part of the world and there’s no problem with it, yet we go to the North and suddenly there’s a huge problem. It’s a manmade problem as a far as I can see.”

John Finlay – Ballacolla, Co Laois

“A line has been drawn in the sand and the processors and the retailers have stepped over it. It’s us, the farmers, who are the ones affected by all of this. Finishing cattle is absolutely and totally unviable at this present time. There is zero incentive to want to bring cattle on for finishing. None.

“We’re here to tell the retailers that farmers can’t be treated as second class citizens any longer. We just can’t keep going the way we are. It’s that simple.”