Up to 40 farmers gathered as part of an ICSA beef protest outside ABP Clones in Co Monaghan on Friday 5 October.

A strong garda presence was in the area, as farmers staged what the ICSA general secretary Eddie Punch termed a “disruptive protest” and prevented lorry loads of livestock from entering the factory.

How sustainable is it to expect people to work for nothing?

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“We have to ramp up the pressure on beef factories to stop this price cutting. We can’t have a business based on less than €4/kg,” Punch told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“We’ve seen how the suckler trial farms are actually demonstrating that €5/kg is needed, but certainly trying to drive price down to €3.70/kg is bankrupting the industry.”

“Farmers are going to have to get more militant here in terms of what’s going with prices. Without suppliers there is no way that you can talk about sustainable beef production.

“How sustainable is it to expect people to work for nothing? How sustainable is it to expect people to lose money on winter finishing systems?”

Protest

The protest started at 7am on Friday morning and continued until after 11am, with ICSA protesters permitting a trickle of lorries and trailers in and out of the factories – effectively slowing down traffic to the factory with up to three lorries waiting at one point to enter.

There were several heated exchanges between protesters and lorry drivers, however the ICSA insisted that the go-slow was necessary to highlight the current stark situation for beef farmers.

We simply can’t survive, something has to change

“Farmers have had a very tough time since this time last year. The fodder crisis in winter, drought crisis in the summer and now we’re getting paid for our produce at below cost of production. We simply can’t survive, something has to change,” ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham said.

In response to a statement from Meat Industry Ireland (MII) earlier this week that stated that beef prices have only slipped in the last two weeks compared with the same time last year, Graham stated: “They have gone down but there’s absolutely no need for it, there’s no justification for it.”

Farmers had travelled from Donegal and Tipperary to attend the protest and a number of agriculture contractors were also in attendance and provided the tractors that originally blocked entrance to the factory.

Impact on rural community

“If the farmer doesn’t get paid, we can’t pay our finance or our wages,” Murphy from agri-contracting said, reflecting the wider impact of poor beef prices on the entire rural community.

“With diesel going up to 84c/l at the moment, we can’t survive. Farmers have to get a better price for their beef. If they don’t get a good price for beef we’re going to get no money.”

Farm families are also under severe pressure and ICSA member and Corrib Oil Lady of the Farmer of the Year Mona O’Donoghue-Concannon said she was at the protest to represent the farm women.

I’m fighting for the women

“I’m fighting for the women, I’m sick of listening to women who are struggling, who can’t pay the bills, who are trying to deal with their husbands who have depression who are hitting rock bottom,” O’Donoghue-Concannon said.

“If we don’t fight we’re at nothing, so I hope there’s an increase in price, but at least for them to come and talk to us and realise the impact they’re having on farm families because I don’t think they realise how important it is.

“There’s kids going to school and college and people just don’t have money. So we’re here fighting because we need an income and at the end of the day Ireland is about farm families.”

Protesters dispersed just after 11am, but ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham insisted that protests would continue at factories throughout the country if prices did not improve.

Watch the video from the protest below

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