Factories are taking advantage of farmers and “sticking the boot in” by cutting prices by 0.30c/kg, the ICSA says.

Sheep chair Sean McNamara said that beef prices are on the floor and factories are now doing the same with lambs.

“Base quotes are running at around €4.50/kg which is totally unacceptable. How can they expect farmers to stay going? If this continues, farmers just won’t be putting their ewes in lamb,” he said.

Northern Irish lambs

McNamara also criticised the large quantities of lambs coming across the border from Northern Ireland (NI).

While we accept that a certain amount of imported lamb is required to meet export demands, the numbers coming in now are only serving to undercut the prices paid to Irish farmers.

“It’s a cynical tactic and a shameful way to treat a sector that operates on such slim margins.”

Last year, 423,000 lambs came south from NI for processing.

Read more

Farmers for a people’s vote launched in the UK

Varying fortunes for sheep farmers

SheepWatch: prices steady in the last week