What is to become of the €22m of unused funding from the €100m Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) was one of the pressing issues at a packed IFA livestock meeting in Macroom on Monday night.
The meeting was told that the IFA is making a strong case for a BEAM 2-type scheme which would be a compensation fund for farmers who sold cattle since 12 May.
"We've also made a case to the minister in relation to a number of the restrictions on the current scheme, which farmers have a difficulty with,” IFA livestock director Kevin Kinsella said.
“Namely the 5% reduction, dairy farmers who have beef enterprises and partnerships. We made it very clear if those guys could apply unrestricted, you wouldn’t have €22m left."
He also told the meeting that the IFA had pushed very hard for a statutory investigation into the beef sector, adding that to date “not one politician came out and supported it".
Beef price index
Kinsella also outlined how a beef price index is likely to be composed. This would enable Irish beef prices to be benchmarked against those of other markets and track changes in EU cattle/beef/offal prices against Irish cattle prices.
An index similar to the Ornua PPI is sought and would consist of three components:
A cattle price index made up of the weekly prime cattle price in seven key export markets. A beef market price index to include retail and wholesale prices for three cuts: steak, round and mince. This would be on a monthly basis.The third element is an offal price index based on daily offal prices on the USDA figures. Because the US is biggest market, changes there will affect offal markets elsewhere. Grid
When questioned on what price changes he could see from the grid review, Kinsella said if similar methods were used as to when the grid was established, then there could be an increase in the differential between from 6c/kg to 8 or 9c/kg.
He cautioned that this was subject to Teagasc research on carcases. Work on the grid review is to be complete by the end of October.
Other issues
There were plenty of postmortems and views on the events in the beef sector of the last two months and the outcome of the recent beef talks was discussed in detail.
Other topics that came up during a busy meeting included the future market for young bulls, issues regarding to dairy calves next spring and concerns regarding South American beef.
While the atmosphere was a little tense, particularly as the question and answer session began, this was to be expected as protests had only stood down days previously.
The top table of Kinsella, IFA livestock chair Angus Woods and Munster regional chair John Coughlan were made clearly aware of the frustration farmers feel at the moment.
What is to become of the €22m of unused funding from the €100m Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) was one of the pressing issues at a packed IFA livestock meeting in Macroom on Monday night.
The meeting was told that the IFA is making a strong case for a BEAM 2-type scheme which would be a compensation fund for farmers who sold cattle since 12 May.
"We've also made a case to the minister in relation to a number of the restrictions on the current scheme, which farmers have a difficulty with,” IFA livestock director Kevin Kinsella said.
“Namely the 5% reduction, dairy farmers who have beef enterprises and partnerships. We made it very clear if those guys could apply unrestricted, you wouldn’t have €22m left."
He also told the meeting that the IFA had pushed very hard for a statutory investigation into the beef sector, adding that to date “not one politician came out and supported it".
Beef price index
Kinsella also outlined how a beef price index is likely to be composed. This would enable Irish beef prices to be benchmarked against those of other markets and track changes in EU cattle/beef/offal prices against Irish cattle prices.
An index similar to the Ornua PPI is sought and would consist of three components:
A cattle price index made up of the weekly prime cattle price in seven key export markets. A beef market price index to include retail and wholesale prices for three cuts: steak, round and mince. This would be on a monthly basis.The third element is an offal price index based on daily offal prices on the USDA figures. Because the US is biggest market, changes there will affect offal markets elsewhere. Grid
When questioned on what price changes he could see from the grid review, Kinsella said if similar methods were used as to when the grid was established, then there could be an increase in the differential between from 6c/kg to 8 or 9c/kg.
He cautioned that this was subject to Teagasc research on carcases. Work on the grid review is to be complete by the end of October.
Other issues
There were plenty of postmortems and views on the events in the beef sector of the last two months and the outcome of the recent beef talks was discussed in detail.
Other topics that came up during a busy meeting included the future market for young bulls, issues regarding to dairy calves next spring and concerns regarding South American beef.
While the atmosphere was a little tense, particularly as the question and answer session began, this was to be expected as protests had only stood down days previously.
The top table of Kinsella, IFA livestock chair Angus Woods and Munster regional chair John Coughlan were made clearly aware of the frustration farmers feel at the moment.
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