Lynskey said in a statement that the “IFA was working with the Department of Agriculture and Meat Industry Ireland on the clean livestock policy for sheep, but because the factories have now decided to ignore these discussions and impose an unfair and unjustified charge on all sheep, IFA is withdrawing from the current discussions”.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that Kepak introduced a 25c/sheep clipping charge this week. Kepak representatives did not respond to requests for comment from the Irish Farmers Journal on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Irish Country Meats has applied a 20c/head charge from 1 October to the end of the hogget season for several years.

Factories have jumped the gun

Lynskey said that the factories “have jumped the gun on this”. He added that, according to the Department, the majority of sheep will fall into category one under the proposed policy, which does not require any additional intervention form the processor for slaughter.

According to IFA calculations, a factory killing 3,000 sheep per day is charging farmers between €2,400 and €3,000 each week in clipping fees.

Lynskey has called on the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed and the Department of Agriculture to call in the lamb factories and insist that they remove the across the board clipping charges.

A meat industry source told the Irish Farmers Journal that the charge strictly covers the cost of clipping, which is necessary to meet hygiene standards and cannot wait for the clean sheep policy to be agreed.

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